Claudia-Alecsandra GABRIAN
Babeș-Bolyai University, Romania
| Abstract: | While the volume of ransomware threats continues to escalate around the world, AI revolutionizes the landscape of cyber offense and defense. Ransomware now evolves into an even more flexible and complex weapon, enabled through AI, morphing into a tool to attack critical infrastructure by state-sponsored opponents. Attackers leverage automation, adaptive encryption, and advanced phishing, whereas defenders employ AI-driven predictive algorithms, behavioral analysis capabilities, and real-time anomaly detection. On the one hand, AI for defense is limited by the vulnerability to adversarial attacks and rapid evolution of malware-both very serious challenges.
The case studies will present the ransomware’s role in hybrid warfare heighten national security risks and geopolitics. Argument: AI has transformed ransomware from a simple form of cyber extortion into an effective weapon for destabilizing the key infrastructures of a nation. Why it matters: Resilient knowledge of this evolution will be the knowledge that is needed for developing resilient cybersecurity strategies. Main question: What constitutes ransomware as a feasible hybrid tool of war? Objective: Identify and evaluate the challenges AI-driven ransomware presents for cybersecurity in hybrid warfare. Literature Review: A review of recent studies on the application of AI within the context of ransomware and hybrid warfare, reports on ransomware attacks and groups of cybercriminals. Data Analysis: Reviewed trends in the evolution of ransomware, AI development, and hybrid warfare strategies. |
| Keywords: | Cybercriminal groups; ransomware; artificial intelligence; critical infrastructure; AI tools |
| Contact details of the authors: | E-mail: claudia.gabrian@ubbcluj.ro |
| Institutional affiliation of the authors: | Babeș-Bolyai University, Doctoral School of International Relations and Security Studies |
| Institutions address: | Mihail Kogalniceanu, no. 1 Street 400084, Cluj-Napoca, România; Tel: +40 264 405 300; Fax: +40 264 591 906, https://www.ubbcluj.ro/en/ |