AI Is Being Weaponized For Cybercrime In 'Unprecedented' Ways, Researchers Warn

 by Tom Ozimek via The Epoch Times,

Artificial intelligence (AI) is being weaponized to conduct increasingly sophisticated cybercrimes, according to a new report from Anthropic, which warns of an “unprecedented” evolution in malicious operations that makes defense far more difficult.

In its Aug. 27 Threat Intelligence Report, the AI safety company described how criminals are embedding advanced models like “Claude” into every stage of attacks—from reconnaissance and credential theft to ransomware and fraud. Researchers said AI tools are now acting not just as advisers but as active operators in real-time campaigns.

This “represents a fundamental shift in how cybercriminals can scale their operations,” the report said.

“Agentic AI systems are being weaponized” to perform sophisticated cyberattacks, not simply provide guidance, the researchers warned.

Cases in Point

The report highlighted several examples, including a large-scale extortion campaign, fraudulent employment scams run by North Korea, and ransomware sold on dark-web forums.

In one operation, for example, a hacker used Anthropic’s coding assistant Claude Code to infiltrate at least 17 organizations—including hospitals, emergency services, and government agencies. “Claude” was deployed to automate reconnaissance, penetrate networks, analyze stolen financial data, and generate persuasive, psychologically targeted ransom notes. Demands sometimes exceeded $500,000.

Rather than encrypting files, the attacker threatened to publicly expose exfiltrated data, ranging from health care records to government credentials. The report stated that this “vibe hacking” method shows how a single operator can now achieve the impact of an entire cybercrime team.

“It says, ‘here’s how much we think we should send the ransom note for,’ and then it actually helps write the ransom note to be as persuasive as possible,” one of the researchers said during a podcast discussing the operation. “So really, every step, end-to-end, AI is able to help with an attack like this,” including analyzing people’s financial details “to work out how much they can realistically be extorted for as well.”

Another case involved North Korean operatives who used Claude to pose as software engineers at U.S. Fortune 500 companies. The AI-generated resumes, passed coding assessments, and even performed technical tasks, allowing unskilled workers to work remotely and earn salaries that investigators say help fund the North Korean regime and its weapons programs.

In a third case, a UK-based actor leveraged Claude to build and market ransomware-as-a-service, selling malware packages for $400 to $1,200. Despite lacking advanced coding ability, the actor used AI to implement encryption, anti-detection techniques, and command-and-control infrastructure.

Growing Threat

Anthropic said these examples illustrate a broader pattern where criminals with little training can now use AI to scale attacks once reserved for sophisticated groups. “Traditional assumptions about the link between actor skill and attack complexity no longer hold when AI can provide instant expertise,” the report warned.

The company said it has banned accounts involved in the abuses, deployed new detection tools, and shared technical indicators with authorities. But it acknowledged that similar misuse is occurring with other commercial and open-source models.

“There are actually open source models out there now that are fine-tuned for this,” an Anthropic researcher warned during a podcast discussing the new phenomenon. “Cyber-criminals are developing weaponized LLMs [large language models] to conduct attacks.”

The implications of what the researchers described as an “evolution in AI-assisted cybercrime” are that defense and enforcement are becoming increasingly difficult, while crimes conducted with the aid of weaponized AI are becoming more common.

National Security

Anthropic also announced the creation of a National Security and Public Sector Advisory Council, composed of former senators and senior officials from the Pentagon and intelligence community, to guide the company on high-impact defense applications of AI.

The move comes as Washington sharpens its focus on autonomous systems. President Donald Trump said on Aug. 25 that drones represent “the biggest thing that’s happened in terms of warfare” since World War II, citing Ukraine as proof that unmanned platforms are reshaping modern combat.

Some analysts and insiders, including autonomous drone company Airrow co-founder David Kaye, say pairing drones with AI could accelerate a shift toward “bots before boots” battlefields, where AI-assisted drones operate without humans nearby and carry out around-the-clock missions “with no risk, no fatigue, and no hesitation.”

Meanwhile, Geoffrey Hinton—the Nobel Prize-winning scientist known as the “godfather of AI”—has issued stark warnings that humanity risks being displaced by machines “much smarter than us.”

In a recent interview, Hinton said the danger of AI extends far beyond job losses, cautioning that if intelligent machines are not programmed to care for humans, they will “just take over” and replace us.

https://www.zerohedge.com/ai/ai-being-weaponized-cybercrime-unprecedented-ways-researchers-warn

China Rejects Trump's Proposal For Nuclear Disarmament Talks With US, Russia

 by Bill Pan via The Epoch Times,

China has poured cold water on President Donald Trump’s suggestion that it join the United States and Russia in talks to downsize their nuclear arsenals, dismissing the idea as unrealistic.

The Chinese regime rejected the proposal on Aug. 27, two days after Trump told reporters that Washington and Moscow were discussing ways to reduce the number of nuclear weapons and that he hoped Beijing would also take part.

Foreign ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun signaled at a press conference that China won’t join the disarmament negotiations, adding that the primary responsibility lies with the United States.

Trump raised the subject earlier this week while fielding questions in the Oval Office alongside South Korean President Lee Jae Myung.

Trump said nuclear arms control had been discussed at his Aug. 15 summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska, and that he wanted China brought into the process.

“One of the things we’re trying to do with Russia and with China is denuclearization, and it’s very important. ... Denuclearization is a very big game, but Russia is willing to do it, and I think China is going to be willing to do it too,” he said.

“We cannot let nuclear weapons proliferate. We have to stop nuclear weapons.”

The push for expanded talks comes as the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, better known as New START, is set to expire on Feb. 5, 2026. With the collapse of the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty in 2019, New START is the only remaining nuclear arms control agreement between Washington and Moscow.

The 10-year treaty, which began in 2011 and was extended by five years in 2021, limits each side to no more than 1,550 deployed nuclear warheads and 700 deployed intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), submarine-launched ballistic missiles, and strategic bombers. It also caps the total number of missile launchers and bombers at 800 and provides for extensive on-site inspections.

Negotiations for a successor treaty are expected to be difficult, as Russia has indicated it wants NATO’s other nuclear-armed members, namely the United Kingdom and France, included in future talks.

The United States and Russia each hold more than 5,000 warheads, while China is estimated to have at least 600 nuclear warheads, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute—up from around 500 in 2024. France maintains a stockpile of about 290 warheads, while the UK holds around 225.

“Depending on how it decides to structure its forces, China could potentially have at least as many ICBMs as either Russia or the USA by the turn of the decade,” the Institute said in an analysis, noting that even if China reaches the upper projection of 1,500 warheads by 2035, that figure would still represent only about one-third of each of the current U.S. and Russian nuclear stockpiles.

The first Trump administration had sought to bring China into nuclear arms reduction talks, but that effort was also rejected by the Chinese regime.

In June 2020, Marshall Billingslea, then the U.S. special presidential envoy for arms control, clashed with Chinese officials online when he posted a photo on social media platform Twitter—now X—of empty seats that appeared to be reserved for China at a negotiating table, after Beijing did not send any representative to Vienna to join U.S.-Russia discussions on extending or replacing New START.

The post prompted a furious response from Fu Cong, head of the Chinese Foreign Ministry’s Arms Control Department, who said that the United States had no right to mark the seats with Chinese flags without Beijing’s consent. The Russian ambassador to Austria later posted photos of the event, showing that seats were filled and no Chinese flags were displayed during the talks.

https://www.zerohedge.com/military/china-rejects-trumps-proposal-nuclear-disarmament-talks-us-russia

'Under 25 And Earning $1 Million: The New AI Job Market'

 The job market for new graduates is sluggish. In June, unemployment for recent college grads was 4.8%, compared with 4% for all workers, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

But there’s one big exception: AI talent. Young professionals in their early 20s with machine-learning skills are commanding extraordinary pay. Some are earning $1 million a year, according to the Wall Street Journal.

A report from AI staffing firm Burtch Works found that base salaries for nonmanagerial AI professionals with zero to three years’ experience rose about 12% from 2024 to 2025—the fastest growth of any group. These workers are also being promoted to management roles roughly twice as quickly as peers in other tech fields, thanks to skills and impact rather than tenure.

“There is a significant salary difference between a machine-learning engineer job and a software-engineer job,” says Anil K. Gupta, professor at the University of Maryland.

At Databricks, entry-level AI hires now receive base salaries of $190,000–$260,000, with stock pushing total compensation far higher. “Under 25, you can be making a million,” says CEO Ali Ghodsi, who calls them “AI-native” workers. “We can’t for the life of us get the more senior people to adopt it.”

The Journal writes that other companies are chasing similar talent. Scale AI says about 15% of its employees are under 25, with starting salaries near $200,000. “We’re eager to hire AI-native professionals, and many of those candidates are early in their careers,” says Ashli Shiftan, the company’s head of people.

Levels.fyi has tracked 42 AI offers exceeding $1 million, including nine given to candidates with less than a decade of workplace experience. Even Roblox has offered entry-level ML engineers packages above $200,000.

The demand is so fierce that some firms are threatening legal action against rivals trying to poach their youngest talent.

Meanwhile, students are jumping straight from academia into lucrative roles. Jure Leskovec of Stanford notes Ph.D. candidates leaving early after being “snatched up by companies with large offers before they have any industry experience.” As he puts it: “The number of zeros is quite large.”

Others without advanced degrees but strong AI skills are also pulling ahead of traditional programmers. “It’s almost like a next generation of a software engineer,” says Leskovec.

The startup CTGT, co-founded by Cyril Gorlla, has an average employee age of 21. Some staff now hold equity valued at $500,000. Gorlla, 23, says he’s even received applications from 16-year-olds with published AI research. “I definitely did not see that a few years ago.”

One recent graduate, Lily Ma of Carnegie Mellon, applied for 30–40 jobs and interviewed at a dozen companies before choosing Scale AI. “I did notice that having research experience helps a lot,” she says.

https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/under-25-and-earning-1-million-new-ai-job-market

California Faces High Pump Prices As Phillips 66 Shuts LA Refinery

 By Julianne Geiger of OilPrice.com

Phillips 66 will begin shutting down its 139,000 bpd Los Angeles-area refinery as soon as next week, sources told Reuters, moving forward on a closure plan announced last year. Units at the plant will idle in phases through Q4 2025, with the facility permanently offline by year-end.

The decision isn’t a surprise—Phillips 66 said in October it would exit the site, citing “market dynamics.” But it comes with fallout: about 600 employees and 300 contractors will lose their jobs by December, with only a handful reassigned to the company’s marine terminal. The company insists it will support workers through the transition, though local officials remain worried about the economic hit.

California, meanwhile, is staring at a bigger problem. Between Phillips 66’s LA facility and Valero’s Benicia refinery, scheduled to close in 2026, the state is set to lose roughly 17% of its refining capacity. That’s a dangerous haircut in a state already paying the nation’s highest pump prices. Analysts warn that by late 2026, California gasoline could top $8 a gallon if supply disruptions collide with fewer in-state refineries.

Lawmakers appear caught flat-footed. California has prided itself on leading the clean energy charge, but the state has no system-wide transition plan to manage a shrinking refinery fleet. Imports will plug some of the gap, but relying on tankers means higher costs and more emissions at the ports. For now, policymakers are scrambling to balance climate ambition with the political pain of $6-plus fuel.

The closure also lands as Phillips 66 wrestles with other headaches. Earlier this month, a California court hit the refiner with an $800 million judgment in a biofuels trade secrets case, and earlier this year, activist hedge fund Elliott Management pressed the company to spin off assets to boost shareholder value.

In the end, the LA refinery shutdown is part of a larger trend. Refining is being squeezed worldwide by overcapacity, shifting demand, and environmental rules. But in California, the lack of a clear bridge plan means refinery retirements risk sparking exactly the kind of fuel crunch the state wanted to avoid.

https://www.zerohedge.com/commodities/california-faces-high-pump-prices-phillips-66-shuts-la-refinery

Oklahoma Introduces Certification Test To Weed Out Far-Left Teachers

 The speed at which progressive indoctrination was introduced into the US public school system was a disturbing reminder of the fragility of western education.  The process has been ongoing for many years, primarily in universities, but the real leftist blitz on grades K-12 started around ten years ago when a quiet conspiracy of LGBT and CRT indoctrination was implemented by teachers unions, NGOs and the Department of Education.

At first, the fallback policy was denial.  Democrats and leftist teachers groups accused critics of "conspiracy theory" when propaganda lessons were uncovered.  School officials actively protected teachers from parent scrutiny, even going so far as to argue that parents had "no right" to know what their children were being taught in class.  This madness continued until the dam broke in 2022-2023 and the agenda was fully exposed. 

At that point, leftists admitted to the indoctrination campaign but asserted that it was their job to socially engineer the next generation to be "more inclusive" in their thinking.  In other words, children must be conditioned to accept woke degeneracy as normal, for the greater good.

Woke programming was not limited to blue states; blue cities within red states had the same problem.  It wasn't until parents and red state leaders intervened that things began to change and verbal warnings were not enough.  Many activist teachers had to be fired - They believed their ideology was more important than the wishes of parents. 

Many states have now passed legislation to remove woke messaging from public schools, but the danger of subversive activism remains.  Leftist teachers can easily revert back to the old methods of subtlety and denial, brainwashing young minds while pretending as if they are following basic lesson plans. 

The state of Oklahoma has devised a way to prevent future leftist infiltration:  A certification test for incoming teachers designed to weed out woke devotees and lay the ground rules for what does and does not cross the line.  The test may be applied to all new teachers, or specifically to teachers trained in blue states like California and New York that require progressive indoctrination.  The state Department of Education, headed by Oklahoma schools Superintendent Ryan Walters, will implement the new certifications

The "America First Test" was designed with the help of Prager University, a conservative organization which produces educational videos and other materials debunking far-left arguments.

Oklahoma is offering teaching bonuses that go up to $50,000 to attract educators from across the nation and has seen a dramatic increase in applicants wanting to come to the state. The new test is meant to ensure they identify teachers with activist views before they end up in the system. Oklahoma, like many others in the US, has a persisting teacher shortage.

The bottom line is that the teachers are the contact point for most American children when it comes to academia and they determine if a student learns writing, history, math, science, or ideology.  Leftists have understood the value of exploiting the teacher dynamic for a long time.  Controlling the point of contact is essential for ensuring that young minds are not damaged by insane cultism. So, either the teachers need to be vetted, or the kids must be home schooled.  There is no other way.

Some critics suggest that leftist teachers could simply lie on the test, though, the certification could also act as a kind of employee agreement showing that they were legally informed of what subjects are not acceptable in the classroom.  In other words, if they violate those restrictions they can't claim ignorance and it may be easier to fire them. 

Other critics argue that filtering teachers in this manner is not legal and not congruent with Oklahoma educational policies.  State legislators argue that they should have a say before any testing is finalized.  However, as parents become more involved these school districts have less of a choice; ultimately the parents decide, whether state officials like it or not. 

Furthermore, with the conspiracy of horrors witnessed in public schools during the Biden Administration, one has to consider what it will take to prevent such a thing from ever happening again.  Middle of the road solutions are not enough. 

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/oklahoma-introduces-certification-test-weed-out-far-left-teachers

Denmark Slashes Economic Growth Forecast as Novo Nordisk Slumps

 

Denmark is cutting its forecast for 2025 economic growth by more than half amid weaker prospects for pharmaceutical giant Novo Nordisk A/S, according to government documents seen by Bloomberg News.

Gross domestic product is expected to expand 1.4% this year, down from the government’s May estimate of 3%, the documents showed. The government cited US tariff increases and a weakened outlook for the pharmaceutical industry as drivers for the revision.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-08-28/denmark-slashes-economic-growth-forecast-as-novo-nordisk-slumps

JNJ Halts Development of Rheumatoid Arthritis Therapy Combo

 Johnson & Johnson (JNJ, Financial) recently announced that it will cease the development of a combination therapy using nipocalimab with an anti-tumor necrosis factor alpha for treating rheumatoid arthritis (RA). This decision follows results from the Phase 2a DAISY proof-of-concept study, which aimed to test the potential effectiveness of this combination in patients with refractory RA. After 12 weeks, the study did not show significant added benefits over the anti-TNFalpha therapy alone. However, no new safety issues were reported during the trial.

Despite this setback, Johnson & Johnson remains optimistic about the future of nipocalimab. The company continues its broader clinical development program for nipocalimab, focusing on its potential in treating various conditions, including Rheumatic, Rare Autoantibody, and Maternal Fetal diseases. Johnson & Johnson is confident in the product's market potential, projecting it could exceed $5 billion.

https://www.gurufocus.com/news/3086268/johnson-johnson-jnj-halts-development-of-rheumatoid-arthritis-therapy-combination