Meta AI model accessed internet, hacked outside firm

Skip to Content News Archives Economy Energy Oil & Gas Renewables Electric Vehicles Mining Commodities Agriculture Real Estate Mortgages Mortgage Rates Finance Banking Insurance Fintech Cryptocurrency Work Wealth Smart Money Wealth Management Investor Personal Finance Family Finance Retirement Taxes High Net Worth FP Comment Executive Women Puzzmo Newsletters Financial Times Business Essentials More Innovation Information Technology FP500 Podcasts Small Business Lives Told Tails Told Shopping Financial Post Store Obituaries Place a Notice Advertising Advertising With Us Advertising Solutions Postmedia Ad Manager Sponsorship Requests Classifieds Place a Classifieds ad Working Profile Settings My Subscriptions Saved Articles My Offers Newsletters Customer Service FAQ News Economy Energy Mining Real Estate Finance Work Wealth Investor FP Comment Executive Women Puzzmo Newsletters Financial Times Business Essentials This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.HomeCybersecurityInformation TechnologyMeta AI model accessed internet, hacked outside firmJust in the past two weeks, top AI firms OpenAI and Anthropic PBC have reported similar breachesAuthor of the article:Riley Griffin and Rachel Metz You can save this article by registering for free here. Or sign-in if you have an account.The advancing capabilities of AI agents like Meta's Muse Spark to find vulnerabilities in systems, and then exploit them, has alarmed researchers and government leaders alike. Photo by Samuel Boivin/NurPhoto via Getty ImagesMeta Platforms Inc. said one of its artificial intelligence models accessed the internet and hacked into an outside service’s systems during cybersecurity testing, following other recent incidents across the AI industry that have escalated concerns about companies’ control over their technology.THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLYSubscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada.Exclusive articles from Barbara Shecter, Joe O'Connor, Gabriel Friedman, and others.Daily content from Financial Times, the world's leading global business publication.Unlimited online access to read articles from Financial Post, National Post and 15 news sites across Canada with one account.National Post ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition to view on any device, share and comment on.Daily puzzles, including the New York Times Crossword.SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLESSubscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada.Exclusive articles from Barbara Shecter, Joe O'Connor, Gabriel Friedman and others.Daily content from Financial Times, the world's leading global business publication.Unlimited online access to read articles from Financial Post, National Post and 15 news sites across Canada with one account.National Post ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition to view on any device, share and comment on.Daily puzzles, including the New York Times Crossword.REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLESCreate an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience.Access articles from across Canada with one account.Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments.Enjoy additional articles per month.Get email updates from your favourite authors.THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK.Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience.Access articles from across Canada with one accountShare your thoughts and join the conversation in the commentsEnjoy additional articles per monthGet email updates from your favourite authorsSign In or Create an AccountMeta’s model, the recently released Muse Spark 1.1, breached the systems of an undisclosed third-party service, the company said Wednesday. The AI model had access to the internet because of an error in the setup testing environment, which Meta was working on with cybersecurity vendor Irregular.“A misconfiguration by Irregular, an independent testing company Meta uses, inadvertently allowed one of our models access to the internet during evaluation,” Meta spokesperson Andy Stone said in a statement. “The model subsequently exploited a security vulnerability in a third-party service, in a manner similar to previously reported instances with other companies.”Get the latest headlines, breaking news and columns.By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc.A welcome email is on its way. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder.The next issue of Top Stories will soon be in your inbox.We encountered an issue signing you up. Please try againMeta learned of the incident when Irregular notified the company, Stone added. Meta is investigating what happened and plans to issue a full retrospective once the company has all the facts.Just in the past two weeks, top AI firms OpenAI and Anthropic PBC have reported similar breaches when their models inadvertently hacked the systems of outside institutions, including Hugging Face Inc., during testing. The advancing capabilities of AI agents to find vulnerabilities in systems, and then exploit them, has alarmed security researchers and government leaders alike who’ve called for more rigorous safety screening and more secure testing environments.The incidents from all three companies also involved Irregular.In Anthropic’s case, the AI developer was using evaluation environments built by Irregular to test its models’ cyber capabilities. Anthropic specified to its model, Claude, that its environment was a simulation and that it had no internet access. But “due to a misunderstanding between us and our evaluation partner, this was not the case,” Anthropic said last week in a blog post. The models ended up breaching three organizations during the tests.Earlier this week, OpenAI similarly said its models took advantage of a “misconfiguration” in a testing environment to connect to the internet and hack the website of an unidentified institution. The breach occurred while the OpenAI models were undergoing the same Irregular evaluation that resulted in Anthropic’s hacking, a person familiar with the matter said, asking not to be identified because the information isn’t public.An Irregular spokesperson confirmed the Meta AI model incident, which was reported earlier Wednesday by The Information, involves the same evaluation-environment issue that was previously disclosed by Anthropic.This advertisement has not loaded yet.This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.“This did not involve a sandbox escape or a sophisticated cyber action. There are no current open issues,” the spokesperson said. “Irregular is developing a white paper to share best practices for containment and securely running cyber evals.”Irregular is part of a fairly new generation of startups focused on AI cybersecurity, responding to the increasing demand for defences against AI-fuelled breaches. The firm runs simulations on frontier AI models to test their potential misuse for cyberattacks and their resilience when targeted by attackers.The Tel Aviv-based company, founded in 2023 by chief executive Dan Lahav and chief technology officer Omer Nevo, raised US$80 million in a funding round last year led by Sequoia Capital and Redpoint Ventures. Formerly known as Pattern Labs, Irregular has said it generates millions in annual revenue.Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Mandeep Singh said recent breaches may increase companies’ interest in “custom security harnesses” and open-weight models that allow users to download and customize the technology to operate within their own infrastructure.“Corporate technology buyers are scrutinizing AI providers more closely for data-sovereignty, security and compliance risks,” Singh said. “Meta could trail hyperscale cloud providers, whose established controls and enterprise relationships may offer an advantage over frontier-model developers.”We apologize, but this video has failed to load.Notice for the Postmedia NetworkThis website uses cookies to personalize your content (including ads), and allows us to analyze our traffic. Read more about cookies here. By continuing to use our site, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.