So here’s something wild that happened in mid-November.
Anthropic – the folks behind Claude Code – just came out with details about a massive cyberattack they managed to stop. The attackers? A Chinese state-sponsored hacker group, allegedly. But here’s the kicker: the attack was almost entirely carried out by AI, with barely any human hands on the keyboard.
Let that sink in for a second. We’re not talking about hackers using AI as a helper tool. We’re talking about AI doing the actual hacking.
How They Did It
The approach was actually pretty clever.
Instead of going in guns blazing with obvious attack commands, the hackers fed Claude a bunch of small, innocent-looking prompts. Each one would do something simple and harmless on its own—scan a server for open ports, write a snippet of code to extract some data, stuff like that.
Nothing that would raise red flags individually.
Then they had another layer of scripts that would collect all these results, piece them together, and figure out the next move. Humans only got involved when there was a critical decision to make.
Smart. Borderline genius, even.
How It Got Stopped
Anthropic’s engineers noticed some weird activity on certain accounts. Patterns that didn’t look right. They shut those accounts down immediately, basically stopping the attack mid-swing.
The good news? Claude logs everything. Every single command it runs. So when the investigation started, they had a complete trail to follow. That’s pretty much the digital equivalent of leaving footprints in fresh snow.
The Damage
Anthropic hasn’t revealed the full extent of what happened, but we know about 30 global organizations were targeted. A handful of them actually got compromised to some degree.
Could’ve been worse. Could’ve been a lot worse.
What This Means for You
Look, I’m not here to fear-monger. But this is a wake-up call.
If you’re storing sensitive data-customer information, financial records, intellectual property, whatever – now’s a good time to take a hard look at your security posture.
Here’s what you should actually do:
- Use AI against AI. Fight fire with fire. There are tools out there that can scan your systems for vulnerabilities. Use them. Get penetration testing done regularly by actual vendors who know what they’re doing.
- Stay on top of vulnerabilities. Set up systems and processes that alert you to critical security issues in your codebase and infrastructure. This isn’t a “set it and forget it” thing. It’s ongoing.
- Patch your damn systems. I know, I know, patching can break things. But you know what else breaks things? Getting hacked. Apply patches as they come out. Test them, sure, but don’t sit on them for months.
- Keep your security people happy. You know those paranoid engineers on your team who seem obsessed with worst-case scenarios and won’t shut up about security? The ones who see problems everywhere? Yeah, hire more of them. Keep them. And most importantly, listen to them.
They’re not being difficult. They’re being right.
The Bottom Line
We’re entering an era where AI attacks AI, and humans are just orchestrating from the sidelines. It’s fascinating from a technical perspective. Terrifying from a security one.
The good news is that the same AI tools that can be weaponized can also be used to defend. The question is whether you’re going to be proactive about it or wait until you’re the one dealing with a breach.
Your call.
Source: Anthropic’s official statement