Unauthorized group has gained access to Anthropic’s exclusive cyber tool Mythos, report claims

A group of unauthorized users have reportedly gained access to Mythos, the cybersecurity tool recently announced by Anthropic.

Much has been made of Mythos and its supposed power – an AI product designed for enterprise security that, in the wrong hands, the company claims could become a powerful hacking tool. Now Bloomberg has reported that a ‘private online forum’, whose members have not been publicly identified, managed to access the tool through a third-party vendor.

“We are investigating a report alleging unauthorized access to Claude Mythos Preview through one of our third-party vendor environments,” an Anthropic spokesperson told TechCrunch. The company says it has so far found no evidence that the allegedly unauthorized activity has affected Anthropic’s systems in any way.

The unauthorized group tried a number of different strategies to gain access to the model, including using “access” that the person interviewed by Bloomberg had. That person is currently employed by an outside contractor working for Anthropic, the outlet reported.

Members of the group are part of a Discord channel that seeks information about unreleased AI models, the outlet reported. The group has been using Mythos regularly since gaining access to it, providing evidence to Bloomberg in the form of screenshots and a live demonstration of the software.

Bloomberg reports that the group, which supposedly gained access to the tool the same day it was publicly announced, “made an informed assessment of the model’s online location based on knowledge of the format Anthropic has used for other models.” The group in question is “interested in playing with new models, not wreaking havoc,” the source told the outlet.

Mythos was released to a select number of vendors, including big names like Apple, as part of an initiative called Project Glasswing. The limited release of the model is designed to prevent its use by bad actors. The tool could be used against corporate security instead of strengthening it, according to Anthropic.

If true, unauthorized use of Mythos could spell trouble for Anthropic, which offered the exclusive release to address the company’s concerns about corporate security.