GCD AI RADAR
incidents/AIR-2025-0021

Anthropic Identifies AI Misuse in Extortion and Ransomware Campaigns

AI-enabled attack3 Confirmed exploitationAI-assisted intrusionAI-generated malwareAI phishing / social engineering

Anthropic published a threat report detailing malicious use of Claude models in extortion, North Korean IT schemes, and ransomware creation. The company responded by banning accounts and sharing indicators with authorities.

Details

type
AI-enabled attack
Attackers used AI as a meaningful part of a cyberattack against someone else.
categories
  • AI-assisted intrusionprimary
    Threat actors using AI tooling in reconnaissance, exploitation, lateral movement or operations.
  • AI-generated malware
    Malware written, adapted or operated with meaningful help from AI models.
  • AI phishing / social engineering
    Phishing, lures and social engineering produced or personalised at scale with AI.
owasp llm top 10
no entry for these categories
mitre atlas
Both rows are derived from the type and categories (OWASP 2025 edition, ATLAS release 2026.09), not classified per record. How
severity
3 · Confirmed exploitation
Used against real targets; limited or unclear impact.
targets
Anthropic
products
Claude, Claude Code
incident date
27 Aug 2025
first reported
27 Aug 2025
origin
AI Incident Database
Derived from the AI Incident Database (CC BY-SA 4.0).
classifier confidence
0.95 · published at or above 0.80; see the methodology
tags
claude · threat-intelligence · ransomware · extortion
record
created 2026-10-18 06:33Z · updated 2026-10-18 06:59Z · json

Sources · 1

  1. 2025-08-27
    Anthropic Reportedly Identifies AI Misuse in Extortion Campaigns, North Korean IT Schemes, and Ransomware Sales
    AI Incident Database · incidentdatabase.ai/cite/1201

Titles and links belong to their publishers. The summary above is written by GCD AI RADAR in its own words; data is CC BY-SA 4.0.

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