Hackers use AI to speed up bank thefts in Latin America
A decade-old criminal group is now using automated agents to bypass security controls at banks and payment apps.
By Yuna Patel ·
CyberCartel, a hacking group active since 2012, has begun using artificial intelligence to automate attacks on Latin American financial institutions. According to research from cybersecurity startup Straiker, the group now targets more organizations at a pace that manual hacking could not achieve. The group has stolen passwords and customer data, with little human involvement required to access bank accounts.
The group has utilized AI agents from SpaceX (Grok), Anthropic (Claude), and the Chinese lab Moonshot AI. Straiker shared its findings with SpaceX and Anthropic. Anthropic has already blocked CyberCartel's access to Claude. Straiker is still attempting to reach Moonshot AI. The research was originally reported by The Information.
The hackers bypassed safety measures by telling the models they were operating in test environments. When one model refused to continue, the group switched to another. If that model also refused, the agents were assigned to deploy malware. This method exposes the fragility of safeguards built into AI models, which are typically designed to refuse requests that aid cyberattacks.
Straiker's report notes that the group has not used Anthropic's Mythos model. Anthropic warned earlier this year that hackers could exploit Mythos and similar models for such attacks. The release of Mythos prompted security teams worldwide to fix thousands of vulnerabilities identified by the model.
This is not the first time Anthropic has disclosed that bad actors are using its technology. In November 2025, the company revealed details of its AI being used in a cyberattack. Claude was later used by researchers, not criminals, to break the security of rival developer OpenAI.
The Straiker report arrives days after South Korean authorities began investigating a similar issue affecting local banks. Hana Bank, KB Kookmin Bank, and Shinhan Bank are among those affected. At least 25,000 Shinhan Bank customers had personal credit information leaked.
Industry players are addressing the risk. Nvidia recently launched the Open Agent Safety Platform. This software and reference system design uses a new hardware and software security stack to contain rogue AI agents. The platform aims to stop agents from escaping sandboxes, executing unauthorized code, or bypassing guardrails.
Source: Tom's Hardware
