Amazon: AI-assisted hacker breached 600 FortiGate firewalls in 5 weeks

A Russian-speaking hacker used generative AI services to breach over 600 FortiGate firewalls (network security devices) across 55 countries between January and February 2026. Rather than exploiting software flaws, the attacker scanned the internet for exposed firewall management interfaces, used brute-force attacks (trying many password combinations) with common passwords to gain access, then deployed AI-generated tools to automate reconnaissance and extract credentials from the breached networks. The attacker also targeted backup systems before attempting to deploy ransomware (malware that encrypts files and demands payment).