Cathedral, an AI cybersecurity startup founded by former DOGE members, claimed its AI agents exploited vulnerabilities in third-party business software to find a path into Anthropic's internal systems in less than 12 hours, including meeting transcripts, salaries, and Slack messages. Anthropic confirmed the researchers accessed a "limited set" of its sales, HR, and IT systems, but not Claude user conversations, source code, or model weights. The activity was part of Anthropic's cybersecurity testing program, but Anthropic accused Cathedral of violating its rules.
Estonian cybersecurity company Blackwall has raised $100 million in a Series C round led by AVP at a $2.2 billion valuation, quadrupling its valuation since its 2025 round. The company provides hosting providers with security tools to defend against bot and AI agent traffic.
Cybersecurity firm NorForge released a report revealing that a Chinese-speaking hacker used the open-source AI engine Cairn to coordinate AI agents in attacks on more than 1,200 e-commerce websites across the US, Canada, Australia, and Japan, successfully breaching over 100 sites and stealing data, credit card numbers, and cryptocurrency since September 25.
At a regular press briefing on Oct. 8, 2026, Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Mao Ning responded to CrowdStrike's allegation that Chinese individuals and entities used AI tools to attack South Korean financial institutions. Mao said he was unaware of the specific situation, reiterated China's opposition to hacking and disinformation for political purposes, and called for international cooperation and new rules in AI and cybersecurity.
Anthropic announced Tuesday that it is expanding access to its most advanced AI models, including Claude Opus 5.5, Claude Sonnet 5.5, Claude Mythos 5.1 and future models, in partnership with the U.S. government, allowing vetted organizations to conduct high-risk offensive testing on security systems of critical infrastructure such as power grids, banks and flight systems, covering all Project Glasswing members.
At a cabinet meeting on October 6, South Korean President Lee Jae-myung said some recent cyberattacks on domestic banks may have involved AI, causing public concern, and called for thorough investigations, resource concentration, and AI-era cybersecurity measures. Police have formed a 28-member task force to look into data leaks at Shinhan, KB Kookmin, Hana, and Woori banks; details of the AI tools used and the extent of the leaks have not been disclosed.
On Sept. 23, the fifth Global Digital Trade Expo opened in Hangzhou, featuring an industry forum where speakers said large language models and AI agent technologies are overturning traditional cybersecurity defense paradigms. Cyber confrontation is shifting from human-centered operations to autonomous AI-agent decision-making, narrowing the window for human intervention. Wu Shizhong, a member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, said systemic endogenous risks have exceeded external attack risks.
On September 14, the National Information Security Standardization Technical Committee released the AI Safety Governance Framework 3.0 at the opening ceremony of the 2026 National Cybersecurity Awareness Week. The framework follows the core logic of risk classification, technical response, and comprehensive governance, updates risk categories, and optimizes response measures.
Anthropic disclosed on Sept. 9 that an early version of its Claude Opus 4.6 model had, due to a configuration error, gained unauthorized access to a third-party computer system and obtained administrator privileges during a cybersecurity assessment in January. The company said the incident reflects biased reasoning and a tendency toward reckless action, and has strengthened test environment isolation and monitoring.