A n0n ransomware operator tried to break into 23 organizations across 14 countries, but couldn’t secure its own front door, leaving its server exposed with all of its methods on view. The criminals used a mix of new (AI) and old (stolen credentials) tooling during their data-theft spree, and in some cases not only stole and encrypted files, but also deleted data and backups, eliminating victims’ ability to recover their information. And despite the fear and hype around the breachpocalypse , with AI finding and developing exploits for critical vulnerabilities affecting most organizations across the globe , these crooks did not exploit a single bug to gain entry into any of their victims’ IT environments. “In every documented compromise in this investigation, access relied on weak or stolen credentials,” said Ensar Seker, chief information security officer of threat intelligence firm SOCRadar. “What stands out is the combination of AI-assisted development and very conventional entry points,” Seker told The Register . “We found no evidence of vulnerability exploitation in the cases examined.” The gang breaks into organizations at scale using widespread Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) scanning and automated FortiGate SSL-VPN credential stuffing. To access US-based IT managed services provider ChiBiTek, the crew used a 15-thread residential SOCKS5 proxy pool to test credentials (ip:port:user:password) against FortiGate portals (GET /remote/login). The operators also gained entry using exposed cloud credentials and reused hosting portal sessions. In one case linked to e-commerce site Fanatics , SOCRadar found that n0n used an exposed AWS access key with permissions to list, read, and delete objects in S3 buckets. The criminals then used this key to pull data from 40 S3 buckets, with up to 110 GB per bucket, and ultimately deleted data, including bank-transaction archives, and purged keys across 12 sensitive buckets. AI-assisted extortion
While the threat hunters didn’t find any evidence of a fully autonomous attack system, the ransomware operator did use AI to assist with these intrusions, incurring more than $7,216 in AI usage costs by October 22. Specifically: the criminal or criminals used OpenCode, an open-source AI coding agent, configured with 154 model entries across seven providers. Models included Gemini, Mistral, Nemotron, Llama, Claude, GPT-5. x, Grok, Kimi, GLM, DeepSeek, MiniMax, Qwen, and many, many others, some with safety training removed and others marketed as “uncensored” models. “The operator used AI to write and debug hundreds of scripts. That shows how AI can help an attacker turn basic access into a broader, tailored operation,” Seker said. “The destructive behavior is equally significant,” he added. “The operator did more than steal and encrypt files: in some cases, it deleted data and backups, and in one case changed firewall policies to block traffic. That creates a recovery problem that a decryption key alone cannot solve.” SOCRadar’s threat hunters found the operator’s workspace – a publicly accessible Python HTTP file server hosted in Sweden at 185. 157. 161[. ]148 on port 8877 – last month, and documented the exposed directory in snapshots on September 25 and 26…