Research
AI in Cybercrime: What 16 Underground Forums Reveal
Publication date unknown · Discovered bitsight.com
Page published
Publication date unknown · First observed: 22 Oct 2026
Coverage timeline
Single-source research — one report is available.
Why it matters
Bitsight’s forum study gives defenders signals of criminal interest in AI-system abuse, though discussion frequency alone does not demonstrate operational attack capability.
Bitsight analyzed thousands of posts across 16 underground communities from February through August 2026, tracking discussion of jailbreaks, stolen API keys, AI models, agents, and MCP. The researchers report increasing interest in targeting AI systems and a shift toward autonomous agents, open-weight models, and productized attack infrastructure, while acknowledging the limitations of keyword-based measurement.