David Sancho
13 articles
-
ResearchWhat Cybercriminals Look For in Corporate Insiders
The supply and demand for insider threat actors have evolved from isolated opportunism into a structured, thriving criminal market, complete with brokers, recruiters, referral bonuses, guarantor services, and revenue-sharing arrangements. This research examines that market across different industries.
August 4th, 2026Mayra Rosario Fuentes, Stephen Hilt, David Sancho
Read article -
ResearchFrom Stealers to Systems: The New Model of Credential Theft
Tightening security controls and other underground factors are forcing infostealer operations to adapt. TrendAI™ Research explores their evolution into coordinated attack infrastructure and the implications for identity defense.
April 21st, 2026 21 minChristopher Boyton, David Sancho, Bakuei Matsukawa
Read article -
ResearchFrom Holiday Snap to Custom Scam in 30 Minutes: How AI Turns Public Photos Into Targeted Attacks
AI now enables attackers to rapidly convert publicly shared personal images into scalable, highly targeted phishing intelligence, turning everyday online photos into a significant and often overlooked security risk for individuals and enterprises.
February 24th, 2026 12 minNumaan Huq, David Sancho
Read article -
ResearchFrom LinkedIn to Tailored Attack in 30 Minutes: How AI Accelerates Target Profiling for Cybercrime
The industrialization of AI-driven OSINT has transformed individual digital footprints into machine-readable intelligence at scale, enabling attackers to operationalize personalized reconnaissance at volume.
February 23rd, 2026 11 minNumaan Huq, David Sancho
Read article -
ResearchThe Devil Reviews Xanthorox: A Criminal-Focused Analysis of the Latest Malicious LLM Offering
Xanthorox AI: flirty, menacing, and potentially devastating? We explored the inner workings of this LLM to unveil its devious capabilities for generating malicious code, obtaining private information, and roleplaying.
November 11th, 2025 15 minDavid Sancho, Vincenzo Ciancaglini, Salvatore Gariuolo
Read article -
ResearchDeepfake It ‘til You Make It: A Comprehensive View of the New AI Criminal Toolset
This report takes a comprehensive look at how deepfakes are used to support criminal business processes, what are the toolkits criminals are exploiting to power their deepfake creation, and what the deepfake underground looks like.
July 9th, 2025David Sancho, Salvatore Gariuolo, Vincenzo Ciancaglini
Read article -
ResearchUnderstanding Hacktivists: The Overlap of Ideology and Cybercrime
Hacktivist groups are driven by a political or ideological agenda. In the past, their actions were likened to symbolic, digital graffiti. Nowadays, hacktivist groups resemble urban gangs. Previously composed of low-skilled individuals, these groups have evolved into medium- to high-skill teams, often smaller in size but far more capable.
February 4th, 2025 17 minDavid Sancho
Read article -
ResearchSurging Hype: An Update on the Rising Abuse of GenAI
The cybercriminal abuse of generative AI (GenAI) is developing at a blazing pace. After only a few weeks since we reported on Gen AI and how it is used for cybercrime, new key developments have emerged. Threat actors are proliferating their offerings on criminal large language models (LLMs) and deepfake technologies, ramping up the volume and extending their reach.
July 30th, 2024 9 minDavid Sancho, Vincenzo Ciancaglini
Read article -
ResearchBack to the Hype: An Update on How Cybercriminals Are Using GenAI
Generative AI continues to be misused and abused by malicious individuals. In this article, we dive into new criminal LLMs, criminal services with ChatGPT-like capabilities, and deepfakes being offered on criminal sites.
May 8th, 2024 12 minVincenzo Ciancaglini, David Sancho
Read article -
ResearchHype vs. Reality: AI in the Cybercriminal Underground
This report discusses the state of generative artificial intelligence (AI) in the cybercriminal underground: how cybercriminals are using ChatGPT, how they're adding ChatGPT features to their criminal products, and how they’re trying to remove censorship to ask ChatGPT anything.
August 15th, 2023 17 minDavid Sancho, Vincenzo Ciancaglini
Read article -
ResearchInside the Halls of a Cybercrime Business
We explore three differently sized criminal groups to determine how they compare to similarly sized legitimate businesses in terms of how they are organized. We also discuss the advantages of knowing the size of a target criminal organization for cybercrime investigators.
April 3rd, 2023 6 minDavid Sancho, Mayra Rosario Fuentes
Read article -
ResearchThe Future of Ransomware
Our research looks at the potential evolutions and revolutions in the current ransomware landscape based on significant triggers and catalysts. We highlight the specific developments (triggers) that could cause gradual changes (evolutions) before sparking more drastic transformations (revolutions).
December 15th, 2022 9 minFeike Hacquebord, Stephen Hilt, David Sancho
Read article -
ResearchUncovering IoT Threats in the Cybercrime Underground
Understanding current and future threats to the internet of things (IoT) can help shape how we secure this technology that is increasingly becoming integral to today's world. What insights can be reaped from the cybercrime underground?
September 10th, 2019 3 minStephen Hilt, Vladimir Kropotov, Fernando Mercês, Mayra Rosario…
Read article