Cybercriminal Underground

The State of Criminal AI: Market Consolidation and Operational Reality

January 28, 2026

The 2025 criminal AI battlefield underscores the robust weaponization of the rapidly growing technology. From criminal large language models (LLMs) and AI-powered malware to deepfakes at scale, threats are advancing on every front. Looking back on the year in criminal AI is crucial for hardening defenses and preparing for what’s next.

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Complexity and Visibility Gaps in Power Automate
September 08, 2025
Amid the rise of low-code automation, Microsoft Power Automate is becoming an attractive target for cybercriminals exploiting its complexity to evade detection and exfiltrate data – but demand for compromised enterprise assets is outstripping supply in the cybercriminal underground.
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Across the Span of the Spanish Cybercriminal Underground: Current Activities and Trends
January 30, 2025
What does the present state of the Spanish-speaking cybercriminal underground look like? What are the most common scams and other illicit offerings peddled by cybercriminals? Unearth the secrets of the Spanish dark market in our research.
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Bridging Divides, Transcending Borders: The Current State of the English Underground
January 07, 2025
The English-speaking cybercriminal underground market has undergone significant transformations. We examine how it has adapted to new technology, increased law enforcement scrutiny, and linguistic diversification.
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Back to the Hype: An Update on How Cybercriminals Are Using GenAI
May 08, 2024
Generative AI continues to be misused and abused by malicious individuals. In this article, we dive into new criminal LLMs, criminal services with ChatGPT-like capabilities, and deepfakes being offered on criminal sites.
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Hype vs. Reality: AI in the Cybercriminal Underground
August 15, 2023
This report discusses the state of generative artificial intelligence (AI) in the cybercriminal underground: how cybercriminals are using ChatGPT, how they're adding ChatGPT features to their criminal products, and how they’re trying to remove censorship to ask ChatGPT anything.
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From Bounty to Exploit: Cybercriminals Use Crowdsourcing for New Attacks
October 20, 2022
From articles to hackathons, cybercriminals are resorting to crowdsourcing to find more ways to exploit systems. In this article, we tackle these contests, explore their results, and anticipate their possible impacts on the work of cybersecurity defenders.
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Looking Into the Void: Probing a Top Bulletproof Hosting Service
August 24, 2022
Cybercriminal groups cannot operate independently. To keep their operations up and running, they need specific services provided by third parties. We investigate one such business that has been integral to the activities of a number of high-profile gangs.
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Metaworse? The Trouble with the Metaverse
August 08, 2022
Innovators are diving into a new and immersive virtual space, but with new technology comes new threats. We bring forward possible problematic issues that metaverse pioneers should be wary of.
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Investigating the Emerging Access-as-a-Service Market
November 30, 2021
We examine an emerging business model that involves access brokers selling direct access to organizations and stolen credentials to other malicious actors.
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Cybercriminal Underground

The State of Criminal AI: Market Consolidation and Operational Reality

Complexity and Visibility Gaps in Power Automate

Across the Span of the Spanish Cybercriminal Underground: Current Activities and Trends

Bridging Divides, Transcending Borders: The Current State of the English Underground

Back to the Hype: An Update on How Cybercriminals Are Using GenAI

Hype vs. Reality: AI in the Cybercriminal Underground

From Bounty to Exploit: Cybercriminals Use Crowdsourcing for New Attacks

Looking Into the Void: Probing a Top Bulletproof Hosting Service

Metaworse? The Trouble with the Metaverse

Investigating the Emerging Access-as-a-Service Market

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