{"id":43914,"date":"2026-02-25T06:58:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-24T22:58:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nuoya.nuoyayasuo.top\/index.php\/2026\/02\/25\/amazon-low-skill-hacker-used-ai-tools-to-breach-fortigate-devices-globally\/"},"modified":"2026-02-25T06:58:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T22:58:08","slug":"amazon-low-skill-hacker-used-ai-tools-to-breach-fortigate-devices-globally","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nuoya.nuoyayasuo.top\/index.php\/2026\/02\/25\/amazon-low-skill-hacker-used-ai-tools-to-breach-fortigate-devices-globally\/","title":{"rendered":"Amazon: Low-Skill Hacker Used AI Tools to Breach FortiGate Devices Globally"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>A recent investigation has uncovered a new breed of cybercriminal- the <a href=\"https:\/\/hackread.com\/development-team-augmentation-approach\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">AI-augmented<\/a> attacker. A Russian-speaking individual, despite having limited technical skills, managed to infiltrate over 600 <a href=\"https:\/\/hackread.com\/fortinet-fixe-attackers-bypass-patches-maintain-access\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">FortiGate<\/a> security devices across 55 countries in just over a month.<\/p>\n<p>According to <a href=\"https:\/\/aws.amazon.com\/blogs\/security\/ai-augmented-threat-actor-accesses-fortigate-devices-at-scale\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">findings<\/a> from Amazon Threat Intelligence, this campaign ran from 11 January to 18 February 2026, and wasn&#8217;t the work of a genius. Instead, the attacker used commercial AI services to act as a force multiplier, turning basic hacking into a high-speed assembly line.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>High-Speed Scouting<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Breaking into a global network usually requires a large team, but this attacker used <a href=\"https:\/\/hackread.com\/tag\/artificial-intelligence\/\">AI<\/a> to write Python and Go scripts that did the tedious work entirely. They systematically scanned the internet for &#8220;open windows,&#8221; specifically digital management ports numbered <code>443, 8443, 10443<\/code>, and <code>4443<\/code>. <\/p>\n<p>The attacker did not even use complex exploits to get in. They simply used AI to help them test common or stolen passwords against these ports. Once they gained a foothold, they used the AI to read the device settings and map out the entire internal network of the victim.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>A Focus on Backups and Passwords<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Once inside, the attacker\u2019s goal was clear- total control. They deployed well-known tools like <a href=\"https:\/\/hackread.com\/nitrogen-ransomware-targets-financial-firms-us-uk-canada\/\" data-type=\"post\" data-id=\"130115\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Meterpreter<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/hackread.com\/north-korean-hackers-play-ransomware-global-attack\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Mimikatz<\/a> to steal passwords from the company&#8217;s main servers, known as <a href=\"https:\/\/hackread.com\/badsuccessor-exploits-windows-server-2025-takeover\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Active Directory<\/a>. Perhaps most concerningly, they specifically hunted for Veeam Backup &amp; Replication servers. Let\u2019s not forget that by targeting backups, a hacker can delete a company\u2019s ability to recover its data, leaving it with no choice but to pay a ransom.<\/p>\n<p>Interestingly, the hacker\u2019s reliance on AI was also their Achilles heel; while the AI could write code, it sometimes became messy and failed when things got complicated. When the attacker tried to use advanced exploits, such as <a href=\"https:\/\/nvd.nist.gov\/vuln\/detail\/cve-2019-7192\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">CVE-2019-7192<\/a> or <a href=\"https:\/\/hackread.com\/new-veeam-vulnerability-backup-servers-at-risk\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">CVE-2023-27532<\/a>, they failed because they did not understand how to tweak the code for updated systems. The campaign was most successful in &#8220;softer&#8221; targets across South Asia, Southeast Asia, Latin America, West Africa, and Northern Europe, researchers noted.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Staying Safe in the AI Era<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Amazon\u2019s security chief, CJ Moses, points out that while the AI tools are new, the solution is old-fashioned. To protect your organisation, you should ensure your device management ports are not visible to the public internet and always use Multi-Factor Authentication (<a href=\"https:\/\/hackread.com\/voidproxy-phishing-service-bypasses-mfa-microsoft-google\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">MFA<\/a>), as a password alone is no longer enough. <\/p>\n<p>Furthermore, never reuse passwords between your security devices and your main office network, and keep all software updated, as most of the attacker&#8217;s advanced attempts failed simply because the victims had installed their security patches.<\/p>\n<div style='margin: 8px auto; text-align: center; display: block; clear: both;'> <script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-3675825324474978\"      crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>  <ins      style=\"display:inline-block;width:300px;height:250px\"      data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-3675825324474978\"      data-ad-slot=\"3421156210\"><\/ins> <script>      (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); <\/script><\/div>\n<div >\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<h5> \t\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/hackread.com\/author\/deeba\/\" rel=\"author\"> \t\t\t\t\t\t\tDeeba Ahmed\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a> \t\t\t\t\t<\/h5>\n<div> \t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/hackread.com\/author\/deeba\/\" rel=\"author\"> \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img src='https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/9fefbe13a37a8aeb4620dfe89bb7feabd9433643ff382b6b882f27837a4cfb72?s=80&#038;d=mm&#038;r=g' srcset='https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/9fefbe13a37a8aeb4620dfe89bb7feabd9433643ff382b6b882f27837a4cfb72?s=160&#038;d=mm&#038;r=g 2x' height='80' width='80' alt=\"Amazon: Low-Skill Hacker Used AI Tools to Breach FortiGate Devices Globally\" \/>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a> \t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<div>\n<div> \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tDeeba is a veteran cybersecurity reporter at Hackread.com with over a decade of experience covering cybercrime, vulnerabilities, and security events. Her expertise and in-depth analysis make her a key contributor to the platform\u2019s trusted coverage.\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<div>\n<div> \t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/hackread.com\/author\/deeba\/\" target=\"\"> \t\t\tView Posts\t\t<\/a> \t<\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A recent investigation has uncovered a new breed of cyb [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43914","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hackread"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nuoya.nuoyayasuo.top\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43914","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nuoya.nuoyayasuo.top\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nuoya.nuoyayasuo.top\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nuoya.nuoyayasuo.top\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nuoya.nuoyayasuo.top\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43914"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nuoya.nuoyayasuo.top\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43914\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nuoya.nuoyayasuo.top\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43914"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nuoya.nuoyayasuo.top\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43914"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nuoya.nuoyayasuo.top\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43914"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}