AI Hackers Are Now COMPLETELY UNSTOPPABLE

Today we’re talking about AI-powered cybercrime—a phrase that sounds like a marketing stunt but is, unfortunately, very real. Cybercriminals basically got a software update, and now they’re running their operations with more automation, more scale, and — let’s just say it — better customer service than half the vendors in your tech stack.

Season 8 is officially here — and it’s the most unhinged, hilarious, and dangerously educational season we’ve ever done with full cyber chaos:

🔥 Interviews with spies & double agents 💥 Cyber WTF moments 🎮 New interactive segments & games 🛡️ Business-grade cybersecurity insights 😂 More humor, more banter, more chaos

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Transcript

Host (00:13.934)
You ever wake up, check the news and wonder, did cyber criminals just get better at their jobs than we are at ours? Yeah, welcome to 2025, where hackers don't even hack anymore. They run AI powered startups with better marketing, better automation, and honestly, better customer support than half the tech vendors you're probably paying for.

They've got deepfake CEOs ordering wire transfers, AI bots scanning your network like it's door to ish, and ransomware that now basically installs and runs itself. Meanwhile, most businesses are still arguing about turning on MFA because it's annoying. So buckle up because today we're diving into the AI crime wave that's hitting faster, cheaper, and smarter than ever before.

Spoiler alert, it's not science fiction. It's happening and you're absolutely not ready. This is Cybercrime Junkies and now the show. Welcome back everybody. This is Cybercrime Junkies where cybercrime gets explained without the corporate jargon, fear-mongering or the 37 page PDFs that nobody actually reads. Today we're talking about AI powered cybercrime.

It's a phrase that sounds like a marketing stunt, but it is unfortunately very real. Cyber criminals basically got a software update and now they're running their operations with more automation, more scale. And let's just say it better customer service than half the vendors in your tech stack. Hackers aren't hacking anymore. They're running like startups, good ones with onboarding user journeys and a knowledge base.

Some even have logos that look better than Fortune 500 branding. And if you think I'm exaggerating, I wish I was. Let's get into the new crime digital ecosystem. It's ugly, it's automated, and it's growing like a VC backed monster with no HR. So here's the thing that business leaders still don't get. Cybercrime isn't a hobby. It's a massive economy. I mean, it's the third largest on the planet.

Host (02:36.983)
There's the United States, there's China, and then there's cybercrime. It's more than Europe all combined. And now AI is pouring rocket fuel on an already raging dumpster fire. What used to take teams of hackers now takes one board hacker with a GPU and a tick tock attention span. AI writes everything. It's it's it's automating all of it. Do they need phishing emails? IEA writes them.

imperfect English, like perfectly regionalized, like somebody grew up right by the target company. It also writes it in Spanish and French. Do need a deep fake of a CFO begging accounting to push that wire transfer AI creates it before your coffee finishes brewing? Do you need ransomware that's polymorphic?

Hey, man, that's a fancy word for polymorphic. What does it mean? Well, it means this. Have you ever seen the movie Deadpool? Ryan Reynolds, who would get stabbed or shot and instantly healed? Well, polymorphic ransomware writes code on the fly. And that means if you're a cyber criminal, do you want the type of ransomware that mutates itself like a Marvel villain every time security tools scan it? Well, then a eyes got your back.

We used to joke that hackers had better work-life balance than IT teams. Now it's not even a joke. They've automated the work and the crime. Meanwhile, businesses still can't keep people from clicking on phishing emails or turning on multi-factor authentication because it's annoying. Fantastic. We wonder why we're victims so much. So this is a mindset change that we're gonna talk about. And then there's...

AI deepfakes or as I call them, identity fraud 3.0 now vegan and gluten free. These things are so good now you can even scam yourself. We're at the point where an AI clone of your voice can call your mom and borrow $5,000 and she'll apologize to the real human you for sending it late. And the criminals they love this tech I mean love it.

Host (05:02.773)
They're using deep fake videos to impersonate executives on Zoom, not even pre-recorded, they're doing it live, real time, with face movement, eye blinking, and even those awkward pauses executives do when pretending they're thinking strategically. If you think you don't have to worry about deep fakes, you could not be more wrong. Think about...

Your voice. Some people will say, well, I don't have a YouTube channel or I don't have a lot of stuff online or I don't not that active on LinkedIn. So they're not going to have a copy of my voice. Well, your voice can be cloned and done undetectable by even your family with less than 10 seconds of your voice. So what does that mean for all of us? Well, even if you have a smartphone, which the odds are that you do and you have a voicemail on your smartphone,

with your voice on it, you are now a target. Once they do that, they become you. They can make you homeless faster than a New York City socialist real estate plan. And here's another thing to think about. Your brain still believes what your eyes see. Even when your eyes are being scammed harder than a tourist in Times Square. Deepfakes are becoming

the new phishing emails. In fact, calendar invites to deepfake run meetings now follow phishing emails. So human hiding behind a digital mask can stress the urgency and emotional critical intenseness to get you to fork over the sensitive data you otherwise could have avoided. So you now have to be aware and beware not just of clicking a bad link, but

You have to watch out so that if you're clicking joining a meeting, you can be walking into an ambush. Great job, AI tech leaders. Nothing to see here. They have it all under control.

Host (07:12.701)
Or do they?

And now we enter the era of automated ransomware, like the doom factory. Remember when ransomware groups needed an actual team of humans? Yeah, not anymore. We've now automated ransomware kits that are for sale on the dark web that will scan the internet, find your vulnerable, your vulnerable system, right? Exploit it, exfiltrate your data, which is a fancy word for steal.

and then encrypt everything, delete your backups, send you a ransomware note, and helpfully and kindly provide 24 seven live chat support like their Amazon customer service. All without a human typing a single line of code. So what does that mean? Well, it means this. Last time I checked, there are a lot more criminals than there are humans.

And when they live in parts of the world where this isn't considered a crime to bankrupt you, then we all can see why this is growing exponentially and why this is so popular. These AI-driven ransomware systems hit hundreds of targets at once, like Oprah handing out laptops. You get encrypted, you get encrypted, everyone gets encrypted. It's mass scale extortion.

run just like any other SaaS business. Criminals don't even need that much talent anymore. They just need a credit card and an internet connection. Meanwhile, we've got companies, small mid-sized businesses here in the United States still bragging about having firewalls from 2014. Yeah, cool story. Let me know how that goes.

Host (09:11.752)
And today there's infrastructure attacks that have evolved. Think of them like infrastructure network attacks 2.0. Here's the fun part. And by fun, I mean horrifying. AI isn't just being used to fish you or ransom you. It's targeting infrastructure now. Hospitals, power grids, manufacturing controls, water systems, even traffic lights.

AI can run reconnaissance faster than any human analyst. It can map your network, find your weak points, predict your response, and help criminals hit where it hurts the most. Think of it like Amazon Prime for cyber attacks, fast, automated, personalized, and somehow cheaper. We used to worry about nation state cyber attack shutting down critical systems. Now,

A group of teenagers outside Moscow with chat GPT-8 and a Red Bull sponsorship can do it from their basement. We're not in the hacker versus business mode anymore. We're in the AI enabled criminals versus the entire planet mode. And the planet is not winning.

So let's talk about the business problem that nobody really wants to talk about. Let's talk business reality. AI cybercrime works for one simple reason. Humans are predictable and businesses move slow. Security teams are underfunded and leadership teams are under informed and criminals are under zero

pressure. It's like the Wild West. Companies still think cyber security is a cost. Criminals think of it as revenue. Guess who wins that fight? We're entering a world where cybercrime is more scalable, more efficient and more innovative than half the legitimate businesses out there here in the United States. If cybercrime was a country, they're the third largest economy on earth.

Host (11:32.998)
And we're still arguing about whether employees should take mandatory security awareness training. Meanwhile, there's blurred lines between everybody's personal lives and their professional lives. And the employees think that what they do at home or what they do on their private time won't affect work. And they think cybersecurity is only something they have to pay attention to once or twice a year at work.

Nothing could be farther from the truth. I love this industry, but sometimes it feels like we're yelling into a void filled with misconfigured servers. So what are we supposed to do this coming year in 2026? I mean, the good news is this. You don't have to build Fort Knox. You just need to stop being the easiest target. Think of it this way.

If we're all at a beach and we're swimming and somebody sees fins, okay, somebody screams, well, is it a shark or is it a dolphin? I don't know. I'm not sticking around to find out. We're all heading to shore. Now, will the shark be able to get any one of us? Yeah. A Mako shark swims 45 miles an hour, even a great white from the movie Jaws.

Those things swim 25 miles an hour. Do you know how fast the fastest human has ever been recorded swimming? Eight miles an hour. They're gonna catch us. But the good news is, like in cyber security, we don't have to build four necks. We don't have to be the fastest swimmer, right? We just have to beat that guy. We literally just have to swim faster. We just have to do a little bit.

so that cyber criminals move on past us and still move to the people that don't have multi-factor authentication, don't train their users, everybody's still using passwords from, you know, 1998, right? Just turn on multi-factor authentication, patch your stuff, get governance from like a board certified expert of virtual CISO, get eyes on glass 24 seven on your network traffic, because the bad guys,

Host (13:54.545)
They're inside your network and most of you won't know it until it's too late. Stop giving admin access to Carl from accounting and most importantly, treat cyber climb like the business problem that it is. AI is not going to slow down. Criminals aren't going to take a break and the attack surface isn't getting smaller, but you can stay ahead. If you stop pretending this is a tech problem,

and start treating it like it is. Survival. This has been Cybercrime Junkies. If this episode ruined your day, good. That means it worked. Stay safe, stay skeptical, and stay one step ahead of the automated idiots trying to ruin your business and bankrupt you from a basement outside Moscow.

This is Cybercrime Chunkies.

Host (14:58.16)
Catch us on YouTube, follow us on LinkedIn, and dive deeper at cybercrimejunkies.com. Don't just watch, be the type of person that fights back. This is Cybercrime Junkies, and now the show.