Iranian Hacker Group Cotton Sandstorm Reportedly Integrating AI into Cyber Influence Operations
Description
The Iranian state-sponsored group Cotton Sandstorm, linked to the IRGC, has integrated generative AI into cyber influence operations. In December 2023, it launched Operation “For Humanity," using AI-crafted messaging to hijack a U.S.-based IPTV streaming service with propaganda about the Israel-Hamas conflict. The group also engages in election-related reconnaissance, which suggests they used AI-enhanced influence efforts ahead of the 2024 U.S. election.
Actors
Alleged Deployers
- islamic-revolutionary-guard-corps-(irgc)
- government-of-iran
- cotton-sandstorm
Alleged Developers
- islamic-revolutionary-guard-corps-(irgc)
- government-of-iran
- cotton-sandstorm
- generative-ai-developers
Harmed Parties
- political-candidates
- media-organizations
- general-public-of-the-united-states
- american-voters
- democratic-integrity
Classification
Risk Domain
Malicious Actors & MisuseRisk Subdomain
4.1. Disinformation, surveillance, and influence at scale
MIT Risk Profile
Source
Related Incidents (Malicious Actors & Misuse)
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Research Papers on This Topic
How Johnny Can Persuade LLMs to Jailbreak Them: Rethinking Persuasion to Challenge AI Safety by Humanizing LLMs
AgentHarm: A Benchmark for Measuring Harmfulness of LLM Agents
Regulating ChatGPT and other Large Generative AI Models
Great, Now Write an Article About That: The Crescendo Multi-Turn LLM Jailbreak Attack