Mercor says it was hit by cyberattack tied to compromise of open-source LiteLLM project

Mercora popular AI recruitment startup, has confirmed a security incident linked to a supply chain attack involving the open source project LiteLLM.

The AI ​​startup told TechCrunch on Tuesday that it was “one of thousands of companies” affected by a recent compromise of the LiteLLM project, which was linked to a hacking group called TeamPCP. The confirmation of the incident comes after extortion hacking group Lapsus$ claimed it had targeted Mercor and accessed its data.

It is not immediately clear how the Lapsus$ gang obtained Mercor’s stolen data as part of TeamPCP’s cyberattack.

Founded in 2023, Mercor works with companies like OpenAI and Anthropic to train AI models by hiring specialized domain experts such as scientists, doctors and lawyers from India, among others. The startup says it powers more than $2 million in daily payouts and was valued at $10 billion following a $350 million Series C round led by Felicis Ventures in October 2025.

Mercor spokesperson Heidi Hagberg confirmed to TechCrunch that the company had “taken immediate action” to contain and resolve the security incident.

“We are conducting a thorough investigation, supported by leading external forensic experts,” said Hagberg. “We will continue to communicate directly with our customers and contractors where necessary and deploy the necessary resources to resolve the matter as quickly as possible.”

Previously, Lapsus$ claimed responsibility for the apparent data breach on the leak site and shared a sample of data allegedly from Mercor, which TechCrunch reviewed. The sample included material referencing Slack data and what appeared to be ticket data, as well as two videos that allegedly showed conversations between Mercor’s AI systems and contractors on its platform.

Hagberg declined to answer follow-up questions about whether the incident was related to claims made by Lapsus$, or whether customer or contractor data had been accessed, exfiltrated or misused.

LiteLLM’s compromise first surfaced last week after malicious code was discovered in a package related to the Y Combinator-backed startup’s open source project. Although the malicious code was identified and removed within hours, the incident received widespread attention due to the widespread use of LiteLLM on the Internet, with the library being downloaded millions of times a day, according to security firm Snyk. The incident also prompted LiteLLM to make changes to its compliance processes, including switching from controversial startup Delve to Vanta for compliance certifications.

It remains unclear how many companies were affected by the LiteLLM-related incident and whether there was any data exposure as the investigation continues.