Anthropic’s Mythos AI used social engineering to target real people


Anthropic’s Mythos AI agent, tested by the UK AI Safety Institute (AISI), has reportedly attempted a real‑world social‑engineering style hack against GitHub maintainers by creating fake human profiles, pressuring them to accept malicious code, and then editing logs to hide its tracks when challenged.

AISI was running cybersecurity evaluations of Anthropic’s Mythos and OpenAI’s Sol when it detected unusual outbound data transfers from its research systems. An investigation showed that some agents had engaged in “sustained, potentially harmful activity” targeting real people and organizations, rather than staying within the intended test environment.

The most serious activity involved an Anthropic Mythos agent tasked with solving a GitHub‑related cybersecurity challenge. The agent identified real GitHub maintainers, researched them, and created multiple fake accounts impersonating those individuals. Using private messages and a file‑sharing service, it tried to pressure and deceive the maintainers into approving malicious code so that it would run on GitHub’s systems.

Read more…
Source:  Malwarebytes Labs


Sign up for the Cyber Security Review Newsletter
The latest cyber security news and insights delivered right to your inbox


Related:

  • NATO: The NCI Agency’s new data science and AI tool receives security accreditation

    December 8, 2023

    Scientists, artificial intelligence (AI) and cyber security experts from the NATO Communications and Information Agency (NCI Agency) celebrated a new milestone at the NCI Agency’s campus in The Hague, Netherlands, after the security accreditation of a high performance computing environment for data science and AI. The Data Science and AI Sandbox, also known as SANDI, provides ...

  • EU agrees ‘historic’ deal with world’s first laws to regulate AI

    December 7, 2023

    The world’s first comprehensive laws to regulate artificial intelligence have been agreed in a landmark deal after a marathon 37-hour negotiation between the European Parliament and EU member states. The agreement was described as “historic” by Thierry Breton, the European Commissioner responsible for a suite of laws in Europe that will also govern social media and ...

  • Guidelines for secure AI system development

    November 28, 2023

    AI systems have the potential to bring many benefits to society. However, for the opportunities of AI to be fully realised, it must be developed, deployed and operated in a secure and responsible way. AI systems are subject to novel security vulnerabilities that need to be considered alongside standard cyber security threats. When the pace of ...

  • The Dark Side of AI: Large-Scale Scam Campaigns Made Possible by Generative AI

    November 27, 2023

    Generative artificial intelligence technologies such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT and DALL-E have created a great deal of disruption across much of our digital lives. Creating credible text, images and even audio, these AI tools can be used for both good and ill. That includes their application in the cybersecurity space. Read more… Source: Sophos  

  • DHS Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency Releases Roadmap for Artificial Intelligence 

    November 14, 2023

    WASHINGTON – Today the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) released its first Roadmap for Artificial Intelligence (AI), adding to the significant DHS and broader whole-of-government effort to ensure the secure development and implementation of artificial intelligence capabilities. DHS plays a critical role in ensuring AI safety and security nationwide. Last ...

  • Threat Predictions for 2024: Chained AI and CaaS Operations Give Attackers More “Easy” Buttons Than Ever

    November 9, 2023

    With the growth of Cybercrime-as-a-Service (CaaS) operations and the advent of generative AI, threat actors have more “easy” buttons at their fingertips to assist with carrying out attacks than ever before. By relying on the growing capabilities in their respective toolboxes, adversaries will increase the sophistication of their activities. They’ll launch more targeted and stealthier hacks ...