Category: Business

For decades, attackers have had the advantage in cybersecurity. Artificial intelligence may be about to change that.

In a blog post published on Tuesday, Firefox browser developer Mozilla said an early version of Anthropic’s Claude Mythos AI—which has drawn attention in recent weeks for its purported cybersecurity prowess—model helped identify 271 vulnerabilities in the browser during internal testing. Those bugs were patched this week.

The results highlight how advanced AI systems can analyze large codebases and locate weaknesses that previously required extensive manual review by human cybersecurity researchers.

“As these capabilities reach the hands of more defenders, many other teams are now experiencing the same vertigo we did when the findings first came into focus,” Mozilla wrote. “For a hardened target, just one such bug would have been red-alert in 2025, and so many at once makes you stop to wonder whether it’s even possible to keep up.”

Mozilla had earlier tested another Anthropic model that identified 22 security-sensitive bugs in a previous Firefox release. Despite these successes, Mozilla acknowledged that the cybersecurity industry has long treated the complete elimination of software exploits as an “unrealistic goal.”

“Until now, the industry has largely fought security to a draw,” the company wrote. “Vendors of critical internet-exposed software like Firefox take security extremely seriously and have teams of people who get out of bed every morning thinking about how to keep users safe.”

Mozilla said the new AI system can analyze source code and identify vulnerabilities in ways that previously depended on scarce human expertise. However, Mozilla said the company was encouraged to see that no bugs were found that couldn’t have been discovered by “an elite human researcher.”

“Some commentators predict that future AI models will unearth entirely new forms of vulnerabilities that defy our current comprehension, but we don’t think so,” they said. “Software like Firefox is designed in a modular way for humans to be able to reason about its correctness. It is complex, but not arbitrarily complex.”

The results, however, suggest AI tools could allow developers to uncover large numbers of vulnerabilities before attackers exploit them—though conversely, in the wrong hands, it could spell big trouble for software firms and users alike.

Launched in March, Mythos is Anthropic’s most advanced model for reasoning, coding, and cybersecurity tasks. Internal company materials describe the system as part of a new model tier beyond the company’s earlier Opus series.

Testing conducted before the model’s release showed it could identify thousands of previously unknown vulnerabilities across major operating systems and web browsers.

Anthropic has limited access to the system through a restricted program called Project Glasswing, which gives select technology companies—including Amazon, Apple, and Microsoft—the ability to use the model to scan software for weaknesses. It reflects a growing effort within the cybersecurity industry to use AI systems to identify and patch vulnerabilities before attackers can exploit them.

However, the same technology could also enable new forms of cyberattacks. Security researchers say AI systems capable of analyzing code at scale could automate the discovery of exploitable vulnerabilities across widely used software.

After the launch of Mythos, testing by the U.K.’s AI Security Institute found that the AI could autonomously execute complex cyber operations, including completing a multi-stage corporate network attack simulation without human assistance. Those capabilities have drawn attention from governments and intelligence agencies alike.

Despite a call from President Donald Trump’s administration to stop using Anthropic’s technology due to a clash over its use in war and surveillance matters, on Monday, the National Security Agency was revealed to be running Claude Mythos Preview on classified networks, according to sources familiar with the deployment. The use of Mythos underscores the growing interest among U.S. security agencies in the model’s ability to identify critical software vulnerabilities.

The model’s performance has also exposed limits in existing AI evaluation systems. Earlier this month, Anthropic acknowledged that several cybersecurity benchmarks are no longer sufficient to measure the capabilities of its newest models.

Mozilla said the results point to a potential shift in cybersecurity, where defenders may begin to close the long-standing advantage attackers have held.

“We are extremely proud of how our team rose to meet this challenge, and others will too,” Mozilla wrote. “Our work isn’t finished, but we’ve turned the corner and can glimpse a future much better than just keeping up. Defenders finally have a chance to win, decisively.”

Mozilla did not immediately respond to a request for comment by Decrypt.

Proof-of-stake blockchains could face greater exposure to future quantum computing attacks because the validator signatures used to secure those networks rely on cryptography that a powerful enough quantum computer could eventually break, according to a report released by cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase.

Released Tuesday by Coinbase’s Independent Advisory Board on Quantum Computing and Blockchain, the report examines how advances in quantum computing could affect digital asset security.

“The right time to prepare for a cryptographic transition is before it becomes urgent,” a Coinbase Advisory Board spokesperson told Decrypt. “Our view is that customer assets are safe today, but the industry should not confuse ‘not imminent’ with ‘not important.’”

Proof-of-stake networks like Ethereum and Solana rely on cryptographic signatures—BLS signatures for Ethereum validators and Ed25519 signatures for Solana validators and users—to help the network agree on blocks and maintain consensus.

“Proof-of-stake chains have exposure in the signature schemes that validators use to secure the network,” the advisory board said. “That means the challenge for proof-of-stake isn’t just upgrading wallets; parts of the core consensus mechanism itself may need to be redesigned.”

The report pointed to recent work by Ethereum developers, including a proposal by co-founder Vitalik Buterin in February to replace BLS validator signatures, KZG commitments, and ECDSA wallet signatures with quantum-resistant alternatives.

Launched in January, Coinbase’s Independent Advisory Board on Quantum Computing and Blockchain brings together academic and industry experts to study how advances in quantum computing could affect blockchain security and to outline long-term solutions. The council includes researchers from Stanford University, the University of Texas at Austin, the Ethereum Foundation, Eigen Labs, Bar-Ilan University, and the University of California, Santa Barbara.

The council also identified digital signatures used by crypto wallets as another major long-term vulnerability. These signatures prove ownership of cryptocurrency and authorize transactions. If broken, attackers could impersonate wallet owners and move their funds. Wallets where public keys are visible on-chain are considered the most exposed. The report estimates that about 6.9 million Bitcoin fall into that category.

The report says current cryptocurrency systems remain secure because quantum computers capable of breaking modern cryptographic signatures do not yet exist. Machines capable of doing so would need to be far more powerful than today’s quantum systems.

While much of the quantum threat discussion has focused on Bitcoin, the council said the network’s core infrastructure—including its mining process, hash functions, and historical ledger—is not considered meaningfully vulnerable under current understanding.

“A quantum computer running Grover’s algorithm could, in theory, solve the proof-of-work challenge faster than a classical computer,” the advisory board said. “However, at the scale of current proof-of-work puzzles, the overhead required to run Grover’s algorithm on a quantum computer outweighs its theoretical advantage.”

Experts warn that moving blockchains to quantum-resistant cryptography presents technical challenges due to quantum-safe signatures being significantly larger than current ones, which could affect transaction speed, storage, and costs.

“The prudent thing to do is to prepare Bitcoin and give people the option to migrate their keys to a quantum-ready format,” Blockstream CEO Adam Back told Bloomberg in a recent interview. “The longer time that Bitcoin users have in order to migrate their keys for custodians and exchanges to move their coins to a quantum-ready format, the safer it will be.”

The report also raises the question of how networks should handle wallets that never upgrade. Lost keys, inactive accounts, and abandoned wallets mean some assets could remain exposed if quantum attacks become possible.

“A cryptographically relevant quantum computer would still require a major leap from today’s systems, but upgrading wallets, exchanges, custodians, and decentralized networks is a multi-year effort,” the advisory board said. “That’s why we wanted to publish now: to ground the conversation in science rather than hype, outline what is actually at risk, and help the industry start making practical migration decisions early.”

Core Scientific, a Bitcoin miner turned data center operator, said on Tuesday that it plans to offer $3.3 billion worth of speculative-grade debt to fund its massive pivot into AI infrastructure.

In an announcement, the company valued around $6.55 billion said that it would use a portion of proceeds from the raise to refinance debt. The firm did not say what the notes due in 2031 would pay in terms of an interest, nor when they would be offered to investors.

Under a 12-year agreement with cloud-computing firm CoreWeave, which could generate roughly $10 billion in revenue, Core Scientific is currently building six data center facilities, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday, citing a person with direct knowledge of the matter.

Core Scientific shares rose 4.5% on Tuesday to $20.77, according to Yahoo Finance. As the AI boom has continued to drive demand for high-density data centers across the U.S., the company’s shares have surged 42% year-to-date.

The junk-bond sale would capitalize the firm with additional funding after it secured up to $1 billion in financing from Morgan Stanley. Core Scientific CEO Adam Sullivan said the firm would be deploying capital to accelerate service timelines associated with its projects.

Days before, the Austin, Texas-based firm indicated that it would continue offloading Bitcoin in order to finance its pivot. At the time, CFO Jim Nygaard estimated that the company currently owns less than 1,000 Bitcoin after selling 1,900 Bitcoin for $175 million in January.

Billing itself now as a leader in digital infrastructure and high-density colocation, the company concluded 2025 with 2,537 Bitcoin on its balance sheet that would be worth $192 million today, with Bitcoin recently changing hands around $75,800, according CoinGecko.

Although the company is distancing itself from the leading digital asset, Bitcoin mining has remained the firm’s biggest money-maker. In the fourth quarter, Core Scientific earned $41.1 million from mining Bitcoin for itself compared to $31.3 million from colocation.

The firm is among several that have historically mined Bitcoin but are now prioritizing AI, including Hut 8, TeraWulf, Riot Platforms, MARA Holdings, and Bitfarms.

When Core Scientific emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2024, the company described itself as one of the largest Bitcoin miners in North America. And the previous year, its fleet of miners produced 13,762 Bitcoin, a sum valued at roughly $1 billion today.