Norforge - GoKawiil

Chinese hacker used AI agents to breach over 100 corporate websites

A security researcher at NorForge, Snorre Fagerland, discovered that a Chinese-speaking hacker exploited exposed instances of the open-source AI platform Carin to direct autonomous agents against corporate websites, breaching more than 100 of them, including those of Deere and SharkNinja. The hacker issued fewer than 100 Chinese-language commands, yet the agents attempted intrusions on over 1,200 sites across the US, Canada, Australia and Japan as of mid-October.

tomshardware.com · 2026-10-19

Security firm Norforge finds AI-agent hacker breached John Deere, SharkNinja, Cummins sites

AI security firm Norforge discovered that a hacker used a swarm of largely autonomous AI agents to breach over 100 company websites, including those linked to John Deere, SharkNinja, and Cummins, according to Reuters. The attacker exploited an open-source AI platform called Cairn, giving instructions in under 100 Chinese characters, with breaches taking roughly 23 hours to complete; Norforge also identified over 20 other exposed Cairn instances it deems likely malicious.

theverge.com · 2026-10-19