New security research from AI leader Anthropic, detailing threats that arise from the use of AI by attackers as well as actual attacks executed, underscores the need for heightened defensive measures along with advanced security technology, and why despite the considerable progress made to date, so much more is needed.
We have closely followed the threat landscape, and defensive strategies, for AI over the last several months, addressing a range of important considerations including:
- security functionality in Microsoft platforms including Intune and Entra
- Copilot Control System‘s contributions to security and governance
- AI security frameworks
- Community project details vulnerabilities in Model Context Protocol (MCP)
- threat protections including Red Teaming
In this first of two reports breaking down compelling findings from Anthropic, I will review the researchers’ view of the growing threat posed by AI. In part 2, I’ll zero in on one of the many attacks that have targeted Anthropic’s Claude AI assistant. The report reflects Anthropic’s commitment to strong security controls, given that the case studies it lays out target the company’s own software.
“While organizations debate whether to use AI, implement heavy compliance and review processes, and more, adversaries are innovating and exploiting the technology for their benefit,” security industry expert Chris Hughes said in response to Anthropic’s findings in a LinkedIn post.
Hughes added: “Cybersecurity has a chance to be an early adopter and innovator as well, or it can continue to be a late adopter and laggard, like we typically are, and be asymmetrically outgunned with AI by our adversaries.”
I take Hughes’ words as a warning about the size, scale, and sophistication of the threat posed by AI, and the need to step up defensive strategy and tactics — today.
The Power Of AI — For Nefarious Acts
Although the research and data reflects attacks directed specifically at Claude, Anthropic noted they show how threat actors are adapting to capitalize on advanced AI capabilities so they can increase speed, sophistication, and ability to elude detection. The authors note that agentic AI is being “weaponized” with AI models used to do the work of carrying out attacks, not just advising or building plans on how to carry them out.
Actors with few or no technical skills can leverage AI to conduct sophisticated operations and attacks — such as ransomware — that previously would not have been possible without years of training. This means the barriers to cybercrime have been lowered dramatically, opening the doors to a whole new set of attackers.
AI is infiltrating virtually every aspect, and every step, of cyberattack processes including:
- Victim profiling
- Attempts to scale to tens of thousands of potential victims
- Stealing data such as credit card information
- Analyzing stolen data
- Creating false identities
“This integration of AI throughout the abuse supply chain enables greater scale, technical sophistication, and operational resilience than would be possible through manual methods alone,” the authors said.
They also explained their motivation for disclosing the details of many attacks: “We’re discussing these incidents publicly in order to contribute to the work of the broader AI safety and security community, and help those in industry, government, and the wider research community strengthen their own defenses against the abuse of AI systems.”
Takeaways From 3 Attacks
As noted above, a follow-up report tomorrow on Cloud Wars will share details from one of the attacks laid out by Anthropic. But here I’d like to share takeaways from three types of attacks to further the understanding of AI-powered security threats.
- Vibe hacking: In one attack, AI served as both technical consultant and active operator while enabling greater scalability, enabling attacks that would be more time-consuming and difficult for individuals to execute manually.
- Ransomware: One attack showed how AI is transforming creation and distribution of malware through Ransomware-as-a-Service models. In this example, an operator with limited expertise created and sold malware with advanced evasion capabilities through AI assistance.
- Exploiting MCP: Anthropic identified a threat actor using MCP and Claude to analyze stealer logs (which track sensitive data harvested from a compromised device) and build detailed victim profiles. The actor analyzed browser usage patterns to identify vulnerabilities, track domain visit frequency to create lists of user interests, and build comprehensive behavioral profiles based on online activities.
Closing Thoughts
Anthropic’s research, and the spirit of its in-depth disclosures, do an important service to companies pursuing AI initiatives, as well as vendors building AI software and security tooling. Knowledge is power for business and security teams as they seek to capitalize on the power of AI while protecting their corporate data and infrastructure, and Anthropic has armed them with important insights to fend off attacks at the same time hackers continue to raise the stakes.
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