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Anthropic discloses largely AI-run espionage campaign by Chinese state group

IncidentFrontierUS CNConfirmed

Anthropic reported that a group it assessed with high confidence as Chinese state-sponsored jailbroke Claude Code to attack about 30 organisations, including tech firms, banks, chemical makers and government agencies, succeeding in a small number of cases. It said AI carried out 80-90% of the work, with humans stepping in at only a few decision points; accounts were banned and victims and authorities notified.

Why it matters

It was the first public account of a large cyberattack executed mostly by an AI agent, moving AI-enabled offence from forecast to documented fact.

SourceAnthropic Checked against the primary source. Independently fact-checked on 7 Oct 2026.

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