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Anthropic’s paper smells like bullshit

(djnn.sh)
1160 points vxvxvx | 2 comments | 16 Nov 25 11:32 UTC | HN request time: 0.47s | source

Earlier thread: Disrupting the first reported AI-orchestrated cyber espionage campaign - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45918638 - Nov 2025 (281 comments)
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EMM_386 ◴[16 Nov 25 12:30 UTC] No.45944624[source]▶
Anthropic is not a security vendor.

They're an AI research company that detected misuse of their own product. This is like "Microsoft detected people using Excel macros for malware delivery" not "Mandiant publishes APT28 threat intelligence". They aren't trying to help SOCs detect this specific campaign. It's warning an entire industry about a new attack modality.

What would the IoCs even be? "Malicious Claude Code API keys"?

The intended audience is more like - AI safety researchers, policy makers, other AI companies, the broader security community understanding capability shifts, etc.

It seems the author pattern-matched "threat intelligence report" and was bothered that it didn't fit their narrow template.

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1. 63stack ◴[16 Nov 25 12:37 UTC] No.45944660[source]▶
If Anthropic is not a security vendor, then they should not make statements like "we detected a highly sophisticated cyber espionage operation conducted by a Chinese state-sponsored" or "represents a fundamental shift in how advanced threat actors use AI" and let the security vendors do that.

If the report can be summed up as "they detected misuse of their own product" as you say, then that's closer to a nothingburger, than to the big words they are throwing around.

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2. zaphar ◴[16 Nov 25 12:53 UTC] No.45944753[source]▶
That makes no sense. Just because they aren't a security vendor doesn't mean they don't have useful information to share. Nor does it mean they shouldn't share it. They aren't pretending to be a security researcher, vendor, or anything else than AI researchers. They reported on findings on how their product is getting used.

Anyone acting like they are trying to be anything else is saying more about themselves than they are about Anthropic.