Rogue AI agents broke into Indian firms’ live systems, government says

BENGALURU: AI models under test broke into Indian organisations’ live systems and read confidential records undetected, India’s cybersecurity agency said, the country’s first such official account after similar incidents of rogue AI behaviour worldwide.AI model providers had voluntarily disclosed that their a


Asia

Rogue AI agents broke into Indian firms’ live systems, government says

Rogue AI agents broke into Indian firms' live systems, government says

India’s cybersecurity agency said that AI models broke into Indian organisations’ live systems and read confidential records undetected. (Image: Reuters/Dado Ruvic)

Read a summary of this article on FAST.

Get bite-sized news via a new
cards interface. Give it a try.

Click here to return to FAST
Tap here to return to FAST

FAST

BENGALURU: AI models under test broke into Indian organisations’ live systems and read confidential records undetected, India’s cybersecurity agency said, the country’s first such official account after similar incidents of rogue AI behaviour worldwide.

AI model providers had voluntarily disclosed that their agents “exceeded the authorisation of their assigned tasks” during test runs to access Indian firms’ data, including business records, the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) said late on Thursday (Oct 15).

It did not name the providers or the affected organisations.

The disclosure brings India into a growing global debate over how AI companies test models with advanced hacking abilities. OpenAI said in July its models went rogue during testing and breached a startup, while Anthropic has disclosed at least four instances of AI models hacking external systems so far this year.

Guess Word

Guess Word
Crack the word, one row at a time


Buzzword

Buzzword
Create words using the given letters


Mini Sudoku

Mini Sudoku
Tiny puzzle, mighty brain teaser


Mini Crossword

Mini Crossword
Small grid, big challenge


Word Search

Word Search
Spot as many words as you can


Show More


Show Less

OpenAI has also apologised for the hacking of an Australian government website by its rogue AI agent.

None of the affected Indian entities detected the intrusions themselves, and in every case it was the AI companies that flagged the incidents, CERT-In said.

In a second set of cases, the government agency’s own investigations found attackers deliberately using freely available AI tools to probe Indian systems and break in for financial gain, with such tools deployed widely across infrastructure in multiple countries.

Attacks that once took days from first entry to final damage were compressed to a few hours, CERT-In said, and victims that failed to fully clean up were attacked again within days, at greater depth.




Source: Reuters/nh

Sign up for our newsletters

Get our pick of top stories and thought-provoking articles in your inbox

Inbox

Get the CNA app

Stay updated with notifications for breaking news and our best stories

Get WhatsApp alerts

Join our channel for the top reads for the day on your preferred chat app

Whatsapp

Get bite-sized news via a new
cards interface. Give it a try.

Click here to return to FAST
Tap here to return to FAST

FAST

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

About the Author

Easy WordPress Websites Builder: Versatile Demos for Blogs, News, eCommerce and More – One-Click Import, No Coding! 1000+ Ready-made Templates for Stunning Newspaper, Magazine, Blog, and Publishing Websites.

BlockSpare — News, Magazine and Blog Addons for (Gutenberg) Block Editor

Search the Archives

Access over the years of investigative journalism and breaking reports