AI Agents Breached Taiwan Govt, Nuclear Agency, Report Finds
Researchers said the attack used up to eight autonomous agents to crack 85 accounts and steal more than 2,500 personnel records.
- On Wednesday, researchers at Israeli cyber firm Dream reported that suspected Chinese hackers used open-source artificial intelligence to attack Taiwanese government agencies, marking the first publicly known case of an autonomous AI hack targeting a government entity.
- The attackers deployed a multi-agent framework using open-source tools Hermes and OpenClaw, enabling a 'near-autonomous attack' that implemented 'Learning Cycles' to autonomously scan vulnerability databases and conduct supply chain reconnaissance.
- During the four-day campaign, the AI cracked 85 government accounts through password guessing, extracted 2,564+ personnel records, and scanned a nuclear safety agency plus 7 energy companies for exploitable vulnerabilities, Dream found.
- Dream warned that the 'era of AI-orchestrated' attacks on government infrastructure is here, emphasizing that attack costs have collapsed while defense costs remain high, requiring countries to act promptly to secure systems.
- Researchers noted that AI agents bypassed safety guardrails by framing activity as 'authorized penetration testing,' revealing how autonomous systems still require significant human tinkering to execute real-world cyber espionage campaigns effectively.
94 Articles
94 Articles
Taiwan has detected computer attacks on government agencies that have resorted to artificial intelligence agents. Authorities have confirmed the use of this technology in operations.
Chinese hackers: Taiwan says AI agents used in cyberattacks targeting island
Overseas hackers used artificial intelligence agents to help carry out a wave of cyberattacks targeting Taiwanese government agencies in July, the island's digital affairs ministry said Thursday. The cyberattacks began in July and the "affected agencies have successively completed the response measures", the Ministry of Digital Affairs said in a statement, without providing further details on the scale, damage or targets of the attacks.
Taiwan government agencies were targeted last month by computer attacks by foreign hackers using artificial intelligence agents
Foreign hackers used artificial intelligence agents (AI) to attack Taiwan government agencies last month, confirmed the territory's Ministry of Digital Affairs (MODA), following a news update from the Financial Times. In a statement, the Taiwan Cyber Security Administration explained that its monitoring unit detected cyberattacks last month, and the National Cyber Security Institute began issuing alerts as of July 20, reported to the CNA agency.
AI agents could have carried out the cyber attack largely autonomously. Experts expect such incidents to accumulate with AI's increasing hacking capabilities in the future.
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