Europol report: AI has become a key tool for Europe’s criminal gangs

According to a jointly developed newly released report by Europol, the United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute (UNICRI) and Trend Micro, criminals are getting better with getting away with scams thanks to artificial intelligence (AI). 

The report reveals that organized crime gangs are turning to AI-powered scams and payment systems to target victims. AI’s capabilities allow these criminal groups to rapidly develop operations globally, making them harder to detect.

Access to AI technology means they can craft messages in multiple languages and create very realistic dupes to impersonate individuals and blackmail targets in global cyberfraud operations, the European Serious Organised Crime Threat Assessment report says.

The report also contained information on existing and potential attacks leveraging AI and recommendations on how to mitigate these risks.

 

The front page of the EU-SOCTA report, Europol’s analysis of threats posed by serious and organized crime in Europe. Source: Europol

The report highlighted AI’s role in scams foolproofing scams

The allure of AI is in the greater efficiency it offers via automation and autonomy. The report could not have come at a better time; currently, the public is getting increasingly concerned about the potential misuse of AI, which forces the authorities to be transparent about the threats without overlooking the potential benefits AI technology has to offer.

Edvardas Šileris, Head of Europol’s European Cybercrime Center said: “This report will help us not only to anticipate possible malicious uses and abuses of AI, but also to prevent and mitigate those threats proactively. This is how we can unlock the potential AI holds and benefit from the positive use of AI systems.”

The report concludes that cybercriminals, if they are not already doing so, will ultimately leverage AI both as an attack vector and an attack surface.

At this time, deepfakes are the best-known use of AI as an attack vector. However, according to the report, new screening technology will be required in the future to mitigate the risk of disinformation campaigns and extortion, as well as threats that target AI data sets.

AI could be used in instances such as creating convincing social engineering attacks at scale; document-scraping malware to make attacks more efficient; evasion of image recognition and voice biometrics; ransomware attacks, intelligent targeting and evasion; and data pollution by identifying blind spots in detection rules.

“As AI applications start to make a major real-world impact, it’s becoming clear that this will be a fundamental technology for our future,” said Irakli Beridze, Head of the Centre for AI and Robotics at UNICRI.

Beridze continued by pointing out that “just as the benefits to society of AI are very real, so is the threat of malicious use.”

“We’re honored to stand with Europol and Trend Micro to shine a light on the dark side of AI and stimulate further discussion on this important topic,” Beridze said .

There is also a warning in the report that claims AI systems that will enhance the effectiveness of malware and disrupt anti-malware and facial recognition systems are in the works.

“Cybercriminals have always been early adopters of the latest technology and AI is no different. As this report reveals, it is already being used for password guessing, CAPTCHA-breaking and voice cloning, and there are many more malicious innovations in the works,” said Martin Roesler, head of forward-looking threat research at Trend Micro.

“We’re proud to be teaming up with Europol and UNICRI to raise awareness about these threats, and in so doing help to create a safer digital future for us all.”

The three organizations made a couple of recommendations to conclude the report. One was to harness the potential of AI technology as a crime-fighting tool to future-proof the cybersecurity industry and policing.

Another was to continue research to stimulate the development of defensive technology and promote secure AI design frameworks. They also urged the de-escalation of politically loaded rhetoric on the use of AI for cybersecurity purposes and encouraged public-private partnerships to leverage and establish multidisciplinary expert groups.

A new era in organized crime

As the report points out, organized crime has indeed evolved to incorporate the use of artificial intelligence, leveraging its efficient abilities to scale and develop sophisticated scams.

According to an X post from a media company named Insight Crime, authorities in Argentina recently sent out a warning that criminals are “increasingly using AI to revamp old scams and ensnare new victims.”

Aside deepfakes, which are very realistic audio, video, or images generated by machine learning and used for scams such as impersonation fraud, AI is being integrated into financial crimes, helping to automate phishing campaigns, generating convincing fake identities, or optimizing malware to target vulnerabilities in systems. The automation, a merit that makes AI a gem in the workspace, also allows groups to reach more victims with less effort.

Outside fraud, AI has been used to facilitate other illegal operations, including drug trafficking, where it can help analyze data on supply chains, transportation routes, or law enforcement patterns to minimize risks and maximize profits.

There is also the use of AI-powered chatbots and cryptocurrency to turbocharge money laundering, enabling faster, anonymized transactions that are difficult to trace.

Accessibility tools like large language models (e.g., ChatGPT) and generative AI have also lowered the technical barrier, giving even less-skilled criminals the opportunity to scam and get away with it.

The Europol report is an attempt to keep the world abreast of recent developments regarding AI’s intersection with crime. It is also a call to action filled with recommendations to fight fire with fire; after all, humans can’t keep up with AI, but we can create AI to combat the rogue applications of the technology.

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