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100K+ Compromised ChatGPT Accounts Found On Dark Web
Egypt, Morocco, and Algeria top the list in the Middle Eastern region.
Global cybersecurity leader Group-IB has identified 101,134 infected devices with saved ChatGPT credentials. Throughout 2023, the company’s Threat Intelligence Platform found compromised account details in 26,802 malware logs traded on dark web marketplaces.
According to Group-IB’s findings, the Asia-Pacific region suffered the greatest concentration of ChatGPT credentials offered for sale, followed by the Middle East and Africa (MEA) region in second place.
Group-IB tech experts explained that when employees take advantage of ChatGPT to optimize business communications and marketing texts, the queries and responses are stored within the AI app. Consequently, any unauthorized access to a ChatGPT account could unearth a wealth of sensitive information.
Also Read: The Largest Data Breaches In The Middle East
Group-IB’s dark web analysis revealed that most compromised ChatGPT accounts were breached by a popular malware program known as “Raccoon Info Stealer”. The virus is often sent by email and can be used by hackers to gain access to sensitive data stored in internet browsers.
In the MENA area, accounts from users in Egypt, Morocco, Algeria, and Turkey topped the “most-infected” list, potentially exposing companies in the region to multiple threat actors.
“Many enterprises are integrating ChatGPT into their operational flow,” explained Dmitry Shestakov, Head of Threat Intelligence at Group-IB. “Employees enter classified correspondences or use the bot to optimize proprietary code. Given that ChatGPT’s standard configuration retains all conversations, this could inadvertently offer a trove of sensitive intelligence to threat actors if they obtain account credentials. At Group-IB, we continuously monitor underground communities to identify such accounts promptly”.
To mitigate the risks posed by compromised ChatGPT accounts, Group-IB suggests that users update passwords using current best practices while also implementing two-factor authentication.
News
Microsoft Plans $10 Billion-Plus Gulf Expansion Despite Iran Conflict
Security is shaping Microsoft’s approach, from resilience work with governments to what it will say about how the money splits by country.
Microsoft is planning more than $10 billion of investment across the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Kuwait through 2030, Vice Chair and President Brad Smith told Reuters, calling the spending schedule aggressive. The Iranian conflict that began on February 28 has not persuaded the company to scale back.
“We’re sustaining all the investments we planned to make before this conflict started, and we are in fact adding to them,” Smith said. The $10 billion-plus total does not, however, show how large those additions are.
The investment, which Smith described as part of Microsoft’s continued infrastructure expansion, is aimed at cloud and AI infrastructure and at the company’s growing regional operations. Microsoft also intends to put more than $400 million into subsea and terrestrial connectivity across the Middle East by 2030.
The spending fits the region’s own ambitions too. Gulf governments have been investing heavily in AI infrastructure as part of a push to diversify their economies beyond oil and gas and turn themselves into global technology hubs. Major cloud and AI providers have been drawn in part by the land and relatively low-cost energy on offer.
Microsoft is widening its partnerships with regional AI companies, though not on identical terms. In 2024, it invested $1.5 billion in Abu Dhabi-based G42 for a minority stake, and Smith currently sits on G42’s board. Saudi Arabia’s Humain and Qatar’s Qai are working with Microsoft on selected priority areas, but Smith said the company does not plan to make capital investments in either.
Also Read: Egypt’s Mobile Wallets Are Booming, But Cash Still Has Power
The conflict has added another strand to Microsoft’s work in the region. Since it began, Smith said, the company has supported regional partners with digital resilience assessments, and it is now working with Gulf countries through a digital resilience initiative focused on preparedness and the protection of critical data.
So far, the company has given no country-by-country breakdown of the investment, citing security among other factors. So while the headline figure is public, how Microsoft divides the spending among the four countries is not.
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