According to Axios, executives at major companies (including many in the Fortune 500) are scrambling after Anthropic warned that a Chinese state-sponsored hacker group used its AI agent tools (notably Claude Code) to automate parts of cyber-espionage campaigns. The incident signals a shift in cyber threat landscape, where malicious actors are increasingly harnessing AI agency and automation to scale attacks. Executives are now inundating cybersecurity vendors with questions about their reliance on AI agents and whether internal systems might be similarly exposed. While some security researchers remain skeptical about the novelty of the claim, the broad reaction reflects rising concern.
