Ethical Hacking News
In a shocking development, LunaLock ransomware gang has introduced a new method of extortion by feeding stolen data into AI models. The group targeted the website Artists&Clients, stealing digital art worth an undisclosed amount and demanding $50K from the victims. This new type of extortion aims to compromise victims' intellectual property, raising significant concerns about artistic security in the age of AI.
The LunaLock gang has introduced a novel method of extorting victims by feeding stolen data into AI models. The attackers targeted the website Artists&Clients in September 2025, stealing digital art worth an undisclosed amount. LunaLock hackers aim to compromise victims' intellectual property by including stolen data in datasets used to train Large Language Models (LLMs). Experts have developed tools such as Glaze and Nightshade to subtly alter images so that they appear normal to humans but mislead AI training. The emergence of LunaLock highlights the need for organizations to take additional measures to safeguard artistic intellectual property. A recent settlement by Anthropic marked the first U.S. AI-copyright case, underscoring the growing recognition of protecting artistic IP in the age of AI.
The cyber threat landscape has witnessed a significant evolution in recent times, with the emergence of new and sophisticated ransomware gangs. One such group that has gained attention for its unique approach is LunaLock, which has introduced a novel method of extorting victims by feeding stolen data into AI models.
In September 2025, the LunaLock gang targeted the website Artists&Clients, resulting in the theft of digital art worth an undisclosed amount. The attackers demanded $50K from the victims, threatening to release all the stolen data publicly on their Tor site, including source code and personal information of users. Furthermore, they announced that they would submit the artwork to AI companies to be added to training datasets.
This new type of extortion aims to compromise victims' intellectual property by including stolen data in datasets used to train Large Language Models (LLMs). In this manner, LunaLock hackers are attempting to ensure that the data becomes effectively permanent once it is included in AI models. This approach sets a dangerous precedent, as other ransomware groups could upload stolen data to publicly accessible databases, making it easily scraped by AI training pipelines.
The implications of this threat are far-reaching and significant. Artists are already taking measures to protect their work from both hackers and AI data scraping. However, the emergence of LunaLock highlights the need for a more comprehensive approach to safeguarding artistic intellectual property in the age of AI.
Experts have noted that this attack on Artists&Clients is unusual, as ransomware usually targets sectors likely to pay. Double or triple extortion may fail with freelancers. The fact that the LunaLock gang chose to target an arts-related website suggests that they are aware of the value and sensitivity of artistic content.
To counter this threat, researchers have developed tools such as Glaze and Nightshade, which subtly alter images so that they appear normal to humans but mislead AI training. Launched in 2022, these tools have garnered over 3M downloads and are widely used by artists to protect their work from AI scraping and ransomware threats like LunaLock.
The use of AI-generated art has become increasingly popular in recent times, with companies like OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic scraping online art to train models. However, the emergence of LunaLock highlights the need for these organizations to take additional measures to safeguard artistic intellectual property.
In a notable development, Anthropic recently agreed to pay at least $1.5B to settle a copyright lawsuit by authors, marking the first U.S. AI-copyright case. This move underscores the growing recognition of the importance of protecting artistic intellectual property in the age of AI.
The case of LunaLock serves as a stark reminder of the evolving nature of cyber threats and the need for continued innovation and cooperation among experts, researchers, and organizations to safeguard artistic intellectual property.
Related Information:
https://www.ethicalhackingnews.com/articles/LunaLock-Ransomware-A-New-Threat-to-Artistic-Intellectual-Property-ehn.shtml
https://securityaffairs.com/182014/malware/lunalock-ransomware-threatens-victims-by-feeding-stolen-data-to-ai-models.html
https://www.cybersecurity-insiders.com/lunalock-ransomware-threaten-to-feed-stolen-data-to-ai-engines/
Published: Tue Sep 9 02:05:11 2025 by llama3.2 3B Q4_K_M
