Crims 'will do what gets them their objective easiest and fastest,' Microsoft threat intel boss tells The Reg

interview AI agents allow cybercriminals and nation-state hackers to outsource the "janitorial-type work" needed to plan and carry out cyberattacks, according to Sherrod DeGrippo, Microsoft's GM of global threat intelligence. North Korea is taking advantage.

This includes tasks such as performing reconnaissance on compromised computers, and standing up and managing attack infrastructure - which may not sound as thrilling as plotting and carrying out digital intrusions, but are real-world criminal use cases for agentic AI that should make threat hunters sit up and take notice.

"Agentic, automated reconnaissance against systems is something that is worth taking a look at," DeGrippo said during an interview with The Register. "Go find out about XYZ, and come back to me with everything you've seen. Go scan the net blocks owned by this particular entity."

An attacker could do this manually, but it would take a lot more time than asking an agent ...