A report released by cybersecurity firm Asymmetric Security says AI agents took active steps to erase traces of their actions after illegally accessing government websites.
The report published on Thursday, analysed the AI models' activities from March to September and found that they pulled data from 55 websites belonging to government agencies, businesses and non-profits including the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the International Energy Agency and the Mayo Clinic.
The agents then erased records or made them inaccessible, limiting the ability of outside auditors and researchers to scrutinise their actions.
They also created temporary email inboxes and private accounts on Urlquery, a website malware-scanning service, to download data according to the report.
The firm said it couldn't determine if the models' actions were deliberate or as a result of rules imposed during test conditions.
“It’s possible that the agents were deliberately using these tools to cover their tracks,” Asymmetric Security co-founder Pippa Thompson said, according to the Financial Times.
The findings follow renewed scrutiny on the actions of AI agents after reports that they targeted websites of government bodies and public institutions in Australia and illegally accessed information.
OpenAI apologised for the hacking, committing funding to improve cyber defences and to establish a local response taskforce after the incident which happened back in June but was only reported in September.
The ChatGPT maker said it did not disclose the incident after it determined that the incursion did not meet its self-reporting threshold.
Of the companies affected, the SEC said no confidential information was accessed, while the CDC, International Energy Agency and Mayo Clinic did not respond to requests for comment.
Russian strikes on Ukraine overnight killed at least two people and injured 15 others, including two children, Ukrainian authorities said.&nbs...
Saudi Aramco has ordered staff to evacuate its headquarters amid escalating Houthi attacks on the kingdom. Two people were killed in an attack on D...
Kazakhstan is preparing sweeping military reforms after 14 service members died during exercises in the Caspian Sea. President Kassym-Jomart Tokaye...
Russia is willing in principle to resume peace talks with Ukraine and the United States in November, Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov said after President Vladimir Putin met U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff in St Petersburg.
Yemen's Houthis have denied targeting the holy city of Medina on Wednesday adding that they have not conducted any military operations towards Saudi Arabia either, denying earlier comments from the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen.
Saudi Aramco has ordered staff to evacuate its headquarters amid escalating Houthi attacks on the kingdom. Two people were killed in an attack on Dammam airport, while Iran's IRGC Navy claimed strikes on seven vessels and warned the U.S. of a wider response.
Russian strikes on Ukraine overnight killed at least two people and injured 15 others, including two children, Ukrainian authorities said. Meanwhile, Russia said it had intercepted the vast majority of 630 Ukrainian drones launched towards Moscow.
Georgia’s Constitutional Court in Batumi will on Wednesday hear a lawsuit seeking to ban five Georgian opposition parties, four of which collectively gained 784,820 votes (37.79 per cent) in the country’s last national elections in 2024.
A judge in the U.S. state of New Mexico has ordered Meta to pay $25 billion after a jury found the company misled consumers, in a case linked to the Cambridge Analytica scandal.
Artificial intelligence is reshaping the technology landscape, fueling new cybersecurity threats, intensifying the battle for AI chips and raising questions about safety. From autonomous hacking to SpaceX’s mobile ambitions, here are five key developments shaping the industry.
Japan has launched an uncrewed spacecraft on a mission to collect the first-ever samples from one of Mars’s moons and bring them back to Earth, in a bid to uncover clues about the origins of the solar system.
Satellite restrictions affecting Ukraine's military have put SpaceX's Starshield network under scrutiny, raising questions about who controls the technology and who can restrict its use during wartime.
More than three centuries after the dodo disappeared from Mauritius, efforts to bring the iconic bird back from extinction are taking a new step forward.
You can download the AnewZ application from Play Store and the App Store.
What is your opinion on this topic?
Leave the first comment