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Source: Axios

Hackers in underground cybercriminal forums are on shopping sprees for new AI tools, according to research shared first with Axios. Why it matters: AI is making once-specialized hacking capabilities cheaper and easier to buy, potentially transforming far more criminals into dangerous hackers.By the numbers: Advertisements for AI tools on underground forums and platforms surged from fewer than 50 per month in late 2025 to more than 1,400 by February, according to a report from Halcyon's Ransomware Research Center.Sellers offered access to ChatGPT Plus accounts for as little as 10 cents and jailbreak prompts to trick models into breaking their safeguards for 32 cents, per the research. Halcyon studied nearly 4,000 posts across 77 Telegram channels, 20 dark web forums and five specialized underground markets between October and May. Threat level: Companies are already losing millions of dollars to the types of cyberattacks enabled by the tools found on these underground markets."It really goes to show you how cheap it is to conduct these activities ... which should be scary for organizations," Cynthia Kaiser, head of Halcyon's Ransomware Research Center and former deputy director of FBI Cyber, told Axios.The big picture: Cybercriminals have completely commercialized the sale and creation of these...