Google says state-sponsored hackers are trying to use its AI chatbot to sharpen cyberattacks against American targets.
In its latest Google Threat Intelligence Report, the company says that China-linked threat actors have been prompting Gemini to help with reconnaissance, phishing campaigns and even vulnerability testing against specific US-based organizations.
According to the report, state-backed groups are attempting to use Gemini across multiple stages of their operations, including command-and-control development and data exfiltration. Google says some actors are also experimenting with so-called “agentic” AI capabilities, assigning the model expert personas or asking it to perform automated security analysis.
Google says China-based threat actor APT31 took a highly structured approach, prompting Gemini with an expert cybersecurity persona to automate the analysis of system vulnerabilities and come up with targeted testing plans.
“The PRC-based threat actor fabricated a scenario, in one case trialing Hexstrike MCP tooling, and directing the model to analyze remote code execution (RCE), web application firewall (WAF) bypass techniques, and SQL injection test results against specific US-based targets. This automated intelligence gathering to identify technological vulnerabilities and organizational defense weaknesses.”
Google notes that this kind of activity blurs the line between routine cybersecurity queries and targeted malicious reconnaissance.
In another case, a PRC-based actor labeled UNC795 relied heavily on Gemini throughout its attack lifecycle. The group used the tool to troubleshoot code, conduct research and generate technical capabilities for intrusion activity. Google says the actor engaged with Gemini multiple days a week.
The company says its safety systems were triggered during these interactions and that Gemini did not comply with requests to create policy-violating capabilities. Google also says it has disabled the assets associated with the identified actors.
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