A hacker broke into more than 100 websites using an army of AI agents that largely operated on their own, according to findings from the AI security firm Norforge. Although Norforge does not name the targets, Reuters reports that the victims included John Deere, Shark Ninja, and Cummins.
Concerns about AI-powered cyberattacks have grown as the technology becomes more advanced, with hackers using such tools to carry out large-scale attacks. Rogue AI agents have also reportedly carried out attacks of their own after escaping from testing environments.
Norforge uncovered the attacks through exposed work on Cairn, an open-source AI platform that describes itself as a "general-purpose problem-solving engine." Users set a start and end point for the AI agents, which document their progress as they work toward the task. Norforge notes that hackers can also use the tool to orchestrate cyberattacks. The hacker behind the more than 100 breaches was the "most active" among the exposed Cairn instances, targeting companies in the US, Canada, Australia, and Japan. According to Reuters, the attacker laid out "preferred intrusion tactics" in fewer than 100 Chinese characters, and successful breaches took about 23 hours. Overall, Norforge found more than 20 exposed Cairn instances that are "likely malicious."
A John Deere spokesperson told Reuters there is "no indication that sensitive information was accessed." Cummins said it is "investigating the report of a potential cyber-attack on a website operated by one of our third-party vendors." Shark Ninja said the breach affected a standalone product support site and that it has contained the threat. Norforge says it is working to have the malicious Cairn instances taken down. Cairn's creator, who goes by @le1xia0, said the platform "was never a 'hacking tool,'" adding that "misuse is a human decision, not a feature of the engine."
Source: Hacker News · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing