Anthropic admits its AI is being used to conduct cybercrime

Anthropic’s agentic AI, Claude, has been "weaponized" in high-level cyberattacks, according to a new report published by the company. It claims to have successfully disrupted a cybercriminal whose "vibe hacking" extortion scheme targeted at least 17 organizations, including some related to healthcare, emergency services and government.

Anthropic says the hacker attempted to extort some victims into paying six-figure ransoms to prevent their personal data from being made public, with an "unprecedented" reliance on AI assistance. The report claims that Claude Code, Anthropic’s agentic coding tool, was used to "automate reconnaissance, harvest victims' credentials, and penetrate networks." The AI was also used to make strategic decisions, advise on which data to target and even generate "visually alarming" ransom notes.

As well as sharing information about the attack with relevant authorities, Anthropic says it banned the accounts in question after discovering criminal activity, and has since developed an ...