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   OpenAI bans Chinese, North Korean hacker accounts using ChatGPT to launch   
   surveillance   
      
   Date:   
   Wed, 08 Oct 2025 12:38:00 +0000   
      
   Description:   
   Malicious actors are trying to trick ChatGPT into doing bad things, but are   
   now being banned.   
      
   FULL STORY   
      
   OpenAI has banned Chinese, North Korean, and other accounts which were   
   reportedly using ChatGPT to launch surveillance campaigns, develop phishing   
   techniques and malware , and engage in other malicious practices.    
      
   In a new report , OpenAI said it observed individuals reportedly affiliated   
   with Chinese government entities, or state-linked organizations, using its   
   Large Language Model ( LLM ) to help write proposals for surveillance systems   
   and profiling technologies.    
      
   These included tools for monitoring individuals and analyzing behavioral   
   patterns.   
      
   Exploring phishing    
      
   Some of the accounts that we banned appeared to be attempting to use ChatGPT   
   to develop tools for large-scale monitoring: analyzing datasets, often   
   gathered from Western or Chinese social media platforms, the report reads.    
      
   These users typically asked ChatGPT to help design such tools or generate   
   promotional materials about them, but not to implement the monitoring.    
      
   The prompts were framed in a way that avoided triggering safety filters, and   
   were often phrased as academic or technical inquiries.    
      
   While the returned content did not directly enable surveillance, its outputs   
   were used to refine documentation and planning for such systems, it was said.    
      
   The North Koreans, on the other hand, used ChatGPT to explore phishing   
   techniques, credential theft, and macOS malware development.    
      
   OpenAI said it observed these accounts testing prompts related to social   
   engineering, password harvesting, and debugging malicious code, especially   
   targeting Apple systems.    
      
   The model refused direct requests for malicious code, OpenAI said, but   
   stressed that the threat actors still tried to bypass safeguards by    
   rephrasing prompts, or asking for general technical help.    
      
   Just like any other tool, LLMs are being used by both financially motivated,   
   and state-sponsored threat actors, for all sorts of malicious activity.    
      
   This AI misuse is evolving, with threat actors increasingly integrating AI   
   into existing workflows to improve their efficiency.    
      
   While developers such as OpenAI work hard on minimizing risk and making sure   
   their products cannot be used like this, there are many prompts that fall   
   between legitimate and malicious use. This gray zone activity, the report   
   hints, requires nuanced detection strategies.    
      
    Via The Register    
      
   ======================================================================   
   Link to news story:   
   https://www.techradar.com/pro/security/openai-bans-chinese-north-korean-hacker   
   -accounts-using-chatgpt-to-launch-surveillance   
      
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