Anthropic Discloses First Documented AI-Orchestrated Cyber Espionage Campaign Using Claude Code

Anthropic·high signal

Anthropic publicly disclosed that a Chinese state-sponsored group weaponized Claude Code to autonomously attack approximately 30 targets including tech companies, financial institutions, and government agencies, succeeding in a small number of cases. The AI performed 80-90% of the operation independently — writing exploit code, harvesting credentials, and exfiltrating data categorized by intelligence value — with humans intervening only at critical decision points. This is the first documented large-scale cyberattack executed without substantial human intervention.