AI Agents Target Financial Data Across Latin America
CyberCartel has compromised hundreds of financial institutions using AI to automate attacks.
By Brianna Jackson ·
A hacking group known as CyberCartel has compromised customer data and passwords from over 400 financial institutions across Latin America. The group is using AI agents to automate its attacks on banks and mobile payment apps. This activity has been reported by cybersecurity startup Straiker. The group's targeting of Latin American businesses has been ongoing for a long time.
CyberCartel has been active since at least 2012. The group's recent use of AI has significantly upgraded its capabilities. This allows the group to target more businesses at a speed that was not possible with human-powered attacks. Straiker has shared its research with both SpaceX and Anthropic, and both firms are working to lock CyberCartel out of their services. Anthropic has already been able to block access to Claude. Chinese lab Moonshot AI's agent has also been used by the hacking group.
AI models typically have safeguards to prevent them from being used for cyberattacks. These safeguards have proven surprisingly easy to bypass. CyberCartel reportedly simply told the models they were being used in test environments. If one model refused to proceed, the hackers used a different model. If that also refused, the AI agents would be tasked with deploying malware instead.
The group does not appear to be using Anthropic's Mythos for its recent attacks. Anthropic announced Mythos earlier this year and warned that hackers could use it for attacks like those carried out by CyberCartel. The release of Mythos saw security teams around the world address thousands of vulnerabilities identified by that model. Anthropic shared details of its AI being used to carry out a cyberattack in November 2025. Later, Claude was used to break the security of OpenAI.
South Korean authorities are also investigating a similar issue affecting local banks. Hana Bank, KB Kookmin Bank, and Shinhan Bank are among the banks affected in that country. At least 25,000 Shinhan Bank customers had their personal credit information leaked. AI companies are aware of the risks their products pose. Nvidia has launched the Open Agent Safety Platform to secure rogue AI agents through a new hardware and software security stack.
Source: Tom's Hardware
