The Era of Autonomous Hacking: Claude Mythos Streamlines Cyberattacks

The global cybersecurity sector is anticipating the release of Claude Mythos by Anthropic. Developers have already begun officially notifying the U.S. government that the launch of this model in 2026 will radically change the threat landscape. While large-scale attacks once required elite hacker groups, Mythos now enables operations of a similar level to be carried out autonomously, relying solely on computational power.

AI Agents’ Hacking Capabilities

The key difference between Claude Mythos and other models is its high level of autonomy. According to leaked Anthropic data, the system is capable of independently identifying vulnerabilities, improvising, and maintaining activity. Mythos reportedly has an autonomy rate of 90%.

Such AI models are outpacing traditional security tools and can respond to code changes faster than security teams are able to release patches.

These capabilities allow even a single attacker to deploy an entire team of AI agents to carry out cyberattacks.

On Shadow AI

Concerns do not end there. Experts are observing the rapid growth of so-called “shadow AI”: employees are increasingly creating their own agents based on Claude or Copilot to automate tasks, often connecting them to internal company systems without the knowledge of IT departments.

This approach to integration creates ideal conditions for cybercriminals. According to a Dark Reading survey, 48% of security professionals consider agent-based AI the main threat of 2026, ranking it above risks associated with deepfakes.

Isolation as the Only Defense

Anthropic specialists and technical experts agree: traditional access control methods are no longer effective against systems like Mythos. The main recommendation for businesses in 2026 is to create strictly isolated environments for working with any intelligent agents.

At present, the threat is considered critical for government systems, but private businesses are identified as the most likely and vulnerable targets for the first large-scale Mythos-powered attacks.