Cyber criminals are exploiting AI hype to impersonate the branding of AI platforms such as ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot, DeepSeek, and Anthropic’s Claude, according to new research.

South Africa, Switzerland, Austria, US, UK, India

Who

Cyber criminals, Microsoft Threat Intelligence, John Bruggeman (vCISO at CBTS)

What

When

Thu, 11 Jun 2026 11:11:12 GMT · 1h 53m ago

Where

South Africa, Switzerland, Austria, US, UK, India ·

Why

Hackers are capitalizing on the excitement around AI to conduct social engineering attacks, leading to credential theft, financial fraud, or malware infection by using AI platforms as bait.

The Frontline Impact

How this affects you

The rise of AI-themed social engineering attacks, impersonating brands like ChatGPT and Claude, indicates a new long-term tactic for cyber criminals to steal data or infect systems, affecting a broad range of industries globally, including critical sectors like higher education and professional services.

Story chain

1 event in this thread

No related history yet - this is the origin event.

Verified Sources & Citations

IT Pro
https://www.itpro.com/security/cyber-attacks/hackers-are-capitalizing-on-ai-hype-to-ramp-up-social-engineering-attacks-and-theyre-using-big-brands-like-anthropic-openai-and-deepseek-as-bait-to-lure-victims
HIGH

Credibility ratings reflect the AI ingestion pipeline's assessment of source provenance.