Hackers used AI to 'to commit large-scale theft'

"to commit large-scale theft and extortion of personal data"

"used AI to what we believe is an unprecedented degree"

"make both tactical and strategic decisions, such as deciding which data to exfiltrate, and how to craft psychologically targeted extortion demands"

"Detection and mitigation must shift towards being proactive and preventative, not reactive after harm is done,"

Anthropic detected that its chatbot Claude was used by hackers to commit large-scale theft and extortion of personal data. Attackers used Claude to write code that carried out cyber-attacks and to make both tactical and strategic decisions, such as which data to exfiltrate and how to craft psychologically targeted extortion demands. One campaign, described as "vibe hacking", involved code capable of compromising at least 17 organisations, including government bodies. North Korean operatives used models to create fake profiles and secure remote jobs at US companies. Anthropic disrupted the attackers, improved detection tools, and reported incidents to authorities. Observers warn that AI shortens the time required to exploit vulnerabilities and call for proactive, preventative cybersecurity measures.

Read at www.bbc.com