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NSA using Anthropic's Mythos for cyber attacks

ft.com

93 points by jawiggins 21 days ago · 31 comments

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tristanj 20 days ago

The FT article has a lack of evidence of an actual operation. It claims Mythos is being used for "offensive cyber operations" in the first paragraph, but doesn't give a source supporting this claim. The lone piece of evidence given says Mythos "would be useful for" infiltrating China or Iran, which is a hypothetical, not evidence of an actual operation.

None of that means the NSA isn't doing offensive work, my issue is that FT claims Mythos is involved in active foreign attacks based on a single anonymous source saying it "would be useful."

  • _alternator_ 20 days ago

    Right, and zero non-anonymous sources. A person plausibly "close to Anthropic" or vaguely "with knowledge of the situation" using the stock phrase "the best defense is a good offense"... this is not a news article y'all. It's speculation.

maerF0x0 20 days ago

I am all about NSA using this stuff as "Defense" but my main concern is their long track record of unconstitutional warrantless, or abuse of shadow courts, to surveil the people they're supposed to be protecting, and for nefarious purposes like spying on ex girlfriends [1]

[1] - https://www.reuters.com/article/world/uk/nsa-staff-used-spy-...

  • ninjalanternshk 20 days ago

    And most of that happened under comparatively good administrations. Imagine what’s been greenlit now.

  • applicative 20 days ago

    Wait til you hear about other countries, to say nothing of Silicon Valley.

  • cyanydeez 20 days ago

    dont worry, theyll also outspurce to capitalists to ensure all the paychopaths get a taste

    • cadamsdotcom 20 days ago

      You just typo’d the words “outspurce” and “paychopaths” into existence =D

      Outspurce - to pay someone to do your (software) dirty work

      Paychopath - someone who goes against their ethics as soon as the price is right

      Two in one post. New record!

Computer0 20 days ago

The only relevant except: "The San Francisco-based company had installed about half a dozen staff within the NSA as so-called forward-deployed engineers to guide the use of the technology and customise models for specific applications, two people familiar with the arrangement said.

It remains unclear whether Anthropic’s engineers are assisting the NSA in active operations. However, one person close to the situation said Mythos would be useful for infiltrating the networks of nations such as China or Iran.

“The best way to build a good defence is to build a good attack,” said a person close to Anthropic, who argued that adversaries are probably building their own AI-driven offensive technology. “If [Mythos] is not used to build attack agents, adversaries will find a way to do it.”"

john_strinlai 20 days ago

while this article is frustratingly light on substance, it should be no surprise the nsa would use anything and everything that could give them an edge. of course they would test out mythos, chatgpt-cyber, etc.

thrill 20 days ago

That headline is doing a lot of heavy making-it-up summarization.

  • NewsaHackO 20 days ago

    Yeah, I honestly feel like some sources should be banned if they regularly editorialize titles like this. FT wants to sell subs by any means necessary, even if it means creating some clearly misleading titles to do so. By amplifying their reach and allowing posts like that only further incentivizes them to continue to do it.

lschueller 20 days ago

https://archive.ph/N7G4v

diwank 20 days ago

""" It remains unclear whether Anthropic’s engineers are assisting the NSA in active operations. However, one person close to the situation said Mythos would be useful for infiltrating the networks of nations such as China or Iran. """

  • keithnz 20 days ago

    seems they forgot to say "...and the networks of friendly nations / allies"

  • atonse 20 days ago

    Mythos useful for infiltrating networks of China and Iran?

    Anyone who’s read anything about Mythos would’ve said the same thing on day one. Didn’t need some anonymous vague source to tell you that.

LarsKrimi 20 days ago

This feels like a stupid idea, but it's not my tax money being wasted on it (yet).

An AI being used for offensive purposes would be so easy to counter due to Brandolini's Law. A much simpler AI could probably easily create dumb honey pot systems that looked like real systems with holes in them to lead more advanced and expensive systems on a wild goose chase.

Suddenly an AI creating security vulnerabilities is a core part of a future cyber defence strategy. Surely someone must be doing that already

sigmar 20 days ago

Not unexpected. Is anyone tracking which episode we're on in the Pantheon timeline?

OutOfHere 20 days ago

The use of AI is to be expected. NSA's bigger evils are them sabotaging our use of good encryption, of making the internet architecturally weak, and forcing the hand of companies to hand over user data to the government.

aussieguy1234 20 days ago

I'd like to see Ukraine using it against Russia, if they're not doing it already.

reducesuffering 20 days ago

But HN told me it’s just a marketing stunt

maerF0x0 20 days ago

How to get past this paywall ?

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