Anthropic: China-Based Hackers Used Claude to Automate Global Cyberattack

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Anthropic has revealed what it calls a significant turning point in cyberwarfare: a global espionage campaign that used its own AI system, Claude, to automate hacking behavior with almost no human involvement.

In a detailed disclosure, the company said suspected Chinese state-sponsored hackers, designated GTG-1002, hijacked Claude Code to infiltrate roughly 30 targets worldwide. The list included large tech firms, financial institutions, chemical manufacturers, and several government agencies.

Anthropic wrote in its report that “we believe this is the first documented case of a large-scale cyberattack executed without substantial human intervention.”

The attack, first detected in mid-September, was carried out by manipulating Claude into believing it was doing defensive cybersecurity work. By disguising ...