Media Coverage

Researchers with Trend Micro’s Zero Day Initiative said that the known APT group, called Water Hydra, was leveraging the flaw (CVE-2024-21412) in order to bypass Defender SmartScreen, Microsoft’s feature in Windows 10 and 11 that is aimed at preventing phishing and malware attacks.

The hacking group (tracked as Water Hydra and DarkCasino) was spotted using the zero-day (CVE-2024-21412) in attacks on New Year's Eve day by Trend Micro security researchers.

Most experts working in AI and cybersecurity agree that the benefits from this technology currently outweigh the risks. Security vendors like Trend Micro have been using AI for over a decade for spam filtering and other purposes.

"It's a pretty large attack surface right now that's often overlooked, especially in small businesses, because it's hard to manage from an enterprise level," explains Dustin Childs, head of threat awareness for Trend Micro's Zero Day Initiative (ZDI), which runs the Pwn2Own hacking contest.

Increasingly, security professionals are coming together with law enforcement to provide free decryption tools — freeing locked files and eliminating the temptation for victims to pony up.