ESET Warns AI-driven Malware Attack and Rapidly Growing Ransomware Economy

ESET's H2 2025 report warns that AI-powered threats have become operational, describing PromptLock — the first known AI-driven ransomware that dynamically generates and refines Lua payloads via a remote AI model to adaptively enumerate, exfiltrate, encrypt, or destroy data — and noting related AI-enabled tools (PromptFlux, PromptSteal) alongside accelerating ransomware-as-a-service activity and advanced evasion techniques.