Amazon: Low-Skill Hacker Used AI Tools to Breach FortiGate Devices Globally

Amazon says a Russian speaking low-skill hacker used AI tools to breach hundreds of FortiGate devices worldwide, showing how AI can scale cyberattacks with basic methods.

A recent investigation has uncovered a new breed of cybercriminal- the AI-augmented attacker. A Russian-speaking individual, despite having limited technical skills, managed to infiltrate over 600 FortiGate security devices across 55 countries in just over a month.

According to findings from Amazon Threat Intelligence, this campaign ran from 11 January to 18 February 2026, and wasn’t the work of a genius. Instead, the attacker used commercial AI services to act as a force multiplier, turning basic hacking into a high-speed assembly line.

High-Speed Scouting

Breaking into a global network usually requires a large team, but this attacker used AI to write Python and Go scripts that did the tedious work entirely. They systematically scanned the internet for “open windows,” specifically digital management ports ...