Hackers deployed an AI system to carry out sophisticated cyberattacks on Taiwan, officials said, in what experts believe is the first known fully autonomous attack on government agencies.
Over four days in July, the AI agents were able to map 21 government systems, crack 85 government user accounts, and extract 2,500 personnel records, according to Dream, an Israeli AI firm that first discovered the attack.
Experts suspect the hackers are from China, but neither Taiwan, nor Dream would confirm the origin of the July attacks.
“The investigation found clear indications that the attacks originated overseas and involved a hybrid approach in which hackers combined conventional operations with AI agents such as OpenClaw,” Taiwan’s Ministry of Digital Affairs said in a Thursday statement.
The hackers’ system was built using open-source AI agents to automate and coordinate much of the intrusion, including reconnaissance, credential attacks and strategizing subsequent attack paths, Dream said. The Financial Times first reported the case on Wednesday.
