- Anthropic says it discovered an AI-only cyberattack targeting at least 30 organizations
- This is believed to be the first attack without substantial human intervention.
- Threat actors are increasingly using AI in their attacks, as are defenders.
Anthropic researchers discovered that their own model Claude was being used, in an agent capacity, not only as an advisor, but also to execute a cyberattack.
The company says the highly sophisticated cyber espionage campaign manipulated Anthropic’s Claude Code tool in an attempt to infiltrate approximately 30 global targets, primarily against large technology companies, government agencies and financial institutions.
While AI-driven cybersecurity threats affecting businesses are now a familiar story, what makes this attack different, in Anthropic’s words, is: “We believe this is the first documented case of a large-scale cyberattack executed without substantial human intervention.”
China Nexus Activity
Anthropic says it has now assessed with “high confidence” that this threat actor was a state-sponsored Chinese malicious actor. Once activity was detected, an investigation determined that the attack relied on several features of AI models that were not available in 2024.
The intelligence required to follow complex commands and coding tasks within context is a feature that has recently reached the required level, and this has been combined with recently developed tools that allow them to crack passwords, scan networks and more.
Perhaps most important is the agency the models now have. The rise of agent AI means that AI can complete these tasks on its own with minimal, occasional input: making decisions and running in loops.
“Agents are valuable for everyday work and productivity, but in the wrong hands, they can substantially increase the viability of large-scale cyberattacks,” Anthropic explained.
“This campaign has substantial implications for cybersecurity in the era of AI ‘agents’: systems that can operate autonomously for long periods of time and that complete complex tasks largely independent of human intervention.”
Security teams and hackers alike will be keenly aware of the transformative power of AI, as the cyber landscape has been reshaped by automated tools for threat deployment and detection.
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