Chinese state-sponsored hackers have used Anthropic’ s AI in what it’ s calling the first documented large-scale cyberespionage campaign to be executed predominantly by AI. This ushers in a new era in cyber warfare, where AI-powered agents are able to gather information and conduct attacks with little to no human intervention.

Although news of the incident surfaced in November, the attack was detected in mid-September 2025, leveraging the autonomous capabilities of the AI model Claude Code to infiltrate roughly thirty high-value global targets – from tech companies to financial institutions and chemical manufacturers to government agencies. AI executed around 80 % to 90 % of the cyberattack tasks independently, requiring human input only in critical strategic decisions. This highlights a pivotal shift in how cybersecurity threats operate at scale.

186 January 2026