Chinese-Speaking Threat Actor Harnesses AI Models for Autonomous Cyberattacks

A Chinese-speaking threat actor used DeepSeek (an AI model) with the Hermes Agent framework (a system for automating hacking tasks) to conduct autonomous cyberattacks against infrastructure, targeting seven vulnerabilities without human intervention and pivoting to new targets when initial attacks failed. The actor also tested other AI models like Claude and Codex to evaluate which tools worked best for their hacking campaigns. This represents a working end-to-end autonomous offensive capability, though the actual impact from this particular campaign was limited.