Jailbroken DeepSeek V4 Helped Hacker Steal 5,200+ Indian University Records in AI-Powered Cyberattack
Source: International Business Times, Singapore Edition
Published on: 2026-10-23 07:30
Unit 42 found that one financially motivated hacker used jailbroken AI tools for credential theft, data exfiltration, VoIP fraud, Wi-Fi cracking and crypto reconnaissance. A hacker used a jailbroken DeepSeek V4 AI model to attack Indian universities, steal more than 5,200 student and faculty records and automate multiple forms of cybercrime, according to Unit 42. The investigation offers a detailed look at how AI is lowering the technical barrier for cybercriminals, allowing one actor to operate across credential theft, data exfiltration, VoIP fraud, Wi-Fi password cracking and cryptocurrency reconnaissance. One Hacker with Multiple Cybercrime Operations Unit 42 identified the actor operating under the handle BUGSTER, who configured the Hermes Agent framework with DeepSeek V4 as its reasoning engine and used Cursor IDE as another AI-assisted development tool. Safety controls on both ...
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