AI agents breached 100+ corporate sites for about $5,000
NorForge researcher Snorre Fagerland says the campaign hit over 1,200 e-commerce sites using open-source AI platform Cairn, at roughly $50 per successful hack.
Hackers used AI agents to compromise roughly 100 corporate websites across the United States, Canada, Australia and Japan, spending about 5,000 dollars in AI tokens on the campaign, according to research published by NorForge senior threat researcher Snorre Fagerland and reported by aitimes.com.
Fagerland's research says the operation relied on the open-source AI platform Cairn and targeted more than 1,200 e-commerce websites, with more than 100 corporate sites compromised. The campaign is estimated to have used DeepSeek models alongside Claude Code, at a cost of roughly 50 dollars per successful intrusion.
The attacks began around September 25, 2026, and Fagerland identified about 20 maliciously used Cairn instances from around October 2, 2026. On average, the AI agents spent about 23 hours probing for vulnerabilities before breaking in.
Companies named as affected
Among the companies named are Deere, SharkNinja and Cummins. Deere said it took remediation measures and saw no sign that sensitive information was accessed. SharkNinja said a separate website holding only product support information was attacked and that the threat was blocked. Cummins said it is investigating a possible cyberattack at a website operated by an outside partner.
Separately, OpenCode disclosed a security breach at its OpenCode Console service affecting 1.4 percent of all users, with some reporting unauthorized charges ranging from hundreds of dollars to more than 1,000 dollars. OpenCode said it used AI models to analyze the attack and gained access to OpenAI's Daybreak Blue program to improve defensive security analysis.
In August 2026, security firm Gambit Security identified Russian-speaking extortionists using SpaceX's Cursor AI tool to breach seven organizations, and in September 2026 a reported AI-agent-involved attack compromised 25 companies and stole at least 600,000 credit card records.
Quick answers
How much did the AI-driven hacking campaign cost?
About 5,000 dollars in AI tokens, or roughly 50 dollars per successful hack, according to NorForge's research.
Which companies were affected?
Companies named in the research include Deere, SharkNinja and Cummins. Deere and SharkNinja said they took remediation or blocking measures, and Cummins said it is investigating an incident at a partner-operated website.
When did the attacks begin?
The attacks began around September 25, 2026, and about 20 maliciously used Cairn instances were identified from around October 2, 2026.