AI Agents Used to Break Into Company Websites, With Australian Businesses Among the Targets

A Chinese-speaking criminal has used autonomous AI agents to attack company websites with very little human help, according to research from Snorre Fagerland of security firm NorForge. The agents tried more than 1,200 sites and reached websites belonging to over 100 companies, including Deere, SharkNinja and Cummins, Reuters reported after reviewing the attacker's own records. How much data, if any, was taken is not known. Fagerland was able to watch the activity because the operators left their control panels open on the internet.

The attackers used Cairn, an open-source AI tool popular with hackers. It gives AI agents a starting point and a goal, then lets them work step by step, posting findings to a shared board where a human can add hints. It was built for authorised penetration testing, and its author told Reuters that harmful use was not intended. NorForge judged more than 20 exposed panels likely to be malicious. The busiest cluster links 14 panels to more than 1,100 attack projects, and appears aimed at lasting access to shop and payment systems, with targets in the United States, Japan and Australia.

A typical task told the agents to find a way to run code on a shop and then plant a web shell uploader, which attackers can swap for something worse at any time. NorForge confirmed one claimed break-in at a large hardware-parts vendor, where the web shell was still live. It also independently confirmed the compromise of a very large US retailer.