Disrupting the first reported AI-orchestrated cyber espionage campaign — from Anthropic
Executive summary
We have developed sophisticated safety and security measures to prevent the misuse of our AI models. While these measures are generally effective, cybercriminals and other malicious actors continually attempt to find ways around them. This report details a recent threat campaign we identified and disrupted, along with the steps we’ve taken to detect and counter this type of abuse. This represents the work of Threat Intelligence: a dedicated team at Anthropic that investigates real world cases of misuse and works within our Safeguards organization to improve our defenses against such cases.
In mid-September 2025, we detected a highly sophisticated cyber espionage operation conducted by a Chinese state-sponsored group we’ve designated GTG-1002 that represents a fundamental shift in how advanced threat actors use AI. Our investigation revealed a well-resourced, professionally coordinated operation involving multiple simultaneous targeted intrusions. The operation targeted roughly 30 entities and our investigation validated a handful of successful intrusions.
This campaign demonstrated unprecedented integration and autonomy of AI throughout the attack lifecycle, with the threat actor manipulating Claude Code to support reconnaissance, vulnerability discovery, exploitation, lateral movement, credential harvesting, data analysis, and exfiltration operations largely autonomously. The human operator tasked instances of Claude Code to operate in groups as autonomous penetration testing orchestrators and agents, with the threat actor able to leverage AI to execute 80-90% of tactical operations independently at physically impossible request rates.
From DSC:
The above item was from The Rundown AI, who wrote the following:
The Rundown: Anthropic thwarted what it believes is the first AI-driven cyber espionage campaign, after attackers were able to manipulate Claude Code to infiltrate dozens of organizations, with the model executing 80-90% of the attack autonomously.
The details:
- The September 2025 operation targeted roughly 30 tech firms, financial institutions, chemical manufacturers, and government agencies.
- The threat was assessed with ‘high confidence’ to be a Chinese state-sponsored group, using AI’s agentic abilities to an “unprecedented degree.”
- Attackers tricked Claude by splitting malicious tasks into smaller, innocent-looking requests, claiming to be security researchers pushing authorized tests.
- The attacks mark a major step up from Anthropic’s “vibe hacking” findings in June, now requiring minimal human oversight beyond strategic approval.
Why it matters: Anthropic calls this the “first documented case of a large-scale cyberattack executed without substantial human intervention”, and AI’s agentic abilities are creating threats that move and scale faster than ever. While AI capabilities can also help prevent them, security for organizations worldwide likely needs a major overhaul.
Also see:
Disrupting the first reported AI-orchestrated cyber espionage campaign — from anthropic.com via The AI Valley
We recently argued that an inflection point had been reached in cybersecurity: a point at which AI models had become genuinely useful for cybersecurity operations, both for good and for ill. This was based on systematic evaluations showing cyber capabilities doubling in six months; we’d also been tracking real-world cyberattacks, observing how malicious actors were using AI capabilities. While we predicted these capabilities would continue to evolve, what has stood out to us is how quickly they have done so at scale.
Chinese Hackers Used AI to Run a Massive Cyberattack on Autopilot (And It Actually Worked) — from theneurondaily.com
Why this matters: The barrier to launching sophisticated cyberattacks just dropped dramatically. What used to require entire teams of experienced hackers can now be done by less-skilled groups with the right AI setup.
This is a fundamental shift. Over the next 6-12 months, expect security teams everywhere to start deploying AI for defense—automation, threat detection, vulnerability scanning at a more elevated level. The companies that don’t adapt will be sitting ducks to get overwhelmed by similar tricks.
If your company handles sensitive data, now’s the time to ask your IT team what AI-powered defenses you have in place. Because if the attackers are using AI agents, you’d better believe your defenders need them too…
