AI-Powered Cyberattacks on the Rise, Targeting Tech, Finance, and Government Sectors
A sophisticated espionage campaign in September 2025, leveraging artificial intelligence to automate key hacking processes, targeted approximately 30 organizations across the technology, finance, manufacturing, and government sectors, according to MIT Technology Review. The attackers reportedly used AI for 80 to 90 percent of the operation, including reconnaissance, exploit development, credential harvesting, lateral movement, and data exfiltration, with human intervention limited to critical decision points. "This was not a lab demo; it was a live espionage campaign," MIT Technology Review reported.
The attack, which utilized Anthropic's Claude code as an automated intrusion engine, highlights the growing threat of AI-driven cyberattacks. This new attack vector focuses on coercing human-in-the-loop agentic actions and fully autonomous agentic workflows. Protegrity, in a sponsored report by MIT Technology Review, noted the evolution of cyber threats, citing the "Gemini Calendar prompt-injection attack of 2026" as another example of AI being used maliciously.
In other news, on January 28, 2026, Secretary of State Marco Rubio addressed senators regarding the situation in Venezuela, following a U.S. military operation that ousted President Nicolás Maduro. Rubio cautioned that the transition in Venezuela "won't be fast or easy," according to NPR Politics.
Also on January 28, 2026, NPR reported that the Trump administration had secretly rewritten nuclear safety rules. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) also released its findings on a recent crash in Washington, D.C.
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