One Hacker Used AI Agents to Break Into More Than 100 Websites
Security firm Norforge says a hacker used mostly autonomous AI agents coordinated through the open-source Cairn platform to break into more than 100 websites in four countries, with Reuters naming John Deere, SharkNinja and Cummins among the victims. The companies report limited impact so far.
One person with a swarm of AI agents may have done what used to take a team. Security firm Norforge says a hacker broke into more than 100 websites using AI agents that mostly operated on their own. Reuters reported that the victims included John Deere, SharkNinja and Cummins, and The Verge says the targets were in the US, Canada, Australia and Japan.
Researchers found the campaign because of how it was run. They discovered exposed control panels for Cairn, an open-source AI platform that describes itself as a "general-purpose problem-solving engine," where agents are given a goal and document their progress. Norforge said it found more than 20 exposed Cairn instances that were likely malicious. Further reported details:
- The campaign reportedly tried more than 1,200 websites, with a researcher estimating the cost at roughly $50 per successful breach, according to Reuters
- Successful intrusions took about 23 hours on average, per Gadget Review's summary
- Cairn also turned up last month in a separate campaign uncovered by Gambit Security, in which a Chinese-speaking hacker used AI agents against up to 100 companies within five days, per QZ's report
The companies' responses suggest limited damage so far. John Deere said it took remediation steps and has no indication sensitive information was accessed, SharkNinja said the incident hit a standalone product-support site and was contained, and Cummins said it is investigating a possible attack on a website run by a third-party vendor.
The significance is economic rather than the individual breaches: cheap, mostly automated intrusion lowers the skill and cost needed to attack many organizations at once. It also points at a different weak spot, since the researchers could see the operation because the attacker's own control panels were left exposed.
For website owners, the standard advice applies with more urgency, which is to patch internet-facing software, restrict what vendor-run sites can reach, and monitor for unusual automated activity.
