IT之家 November 2 news, according to foreign media Tom’s Hardware, the cybersecurity team Cisco Talos has discovered a new type of Windows malicious trojan named VOLTA. The trojan integrates an AI model, is able to analyze the victim’s personal data, assess the value of the information therein, and after completing the relevant operations attempts to delete itself, in order to reduce the risk of being discovered and traced.
According to reports, VOLTA is able to collect various types of sensitive information on the victim’s device, such as web browsing history, cryptocurrency wallets, browser extensions, text documents, chat records, etc., and uploads the corresponding files to online AI products such as Anthropic Claude for analysis and summary generation, for the hacker’s reference. After completing data collection and value assessment, VOLTA then attempts to delete itself, in order to reduce the traces of the attack left behind and increase the difficulty for security personnel to investigate and trace.
Cisco Talos believes that this type of malware shows that AI technology is gradually changing the way hackers operate; traditional large-scale indiscriminate attacks not only easily expose one’s whereabouts, but also require a large investment of time waiting for potential gains, and the final return also carries considerable uncertainty. In contrast, the approach of first collecting data and then using AI to assess the value of targets helps attackers screen for more profitable targets, and may expose large institutions, executives, and other groups to more precise cyberattack risks.
However, ordinary users should not let their guard down because of this. Even if the files on a personal computer lack direct economic value, information such as browsing history, consumption habits, life trajectories, and social relationships may still be used for user profiling analysis. Attackers can leverage AI to mine personal preferences and potential weaknesses from these data, and then plan more targeted scams, social engineering attacks, and other malicious activities, further increasing the difficulty of protecting personal information.