Alabama nonprofit shuts down systems after suspicious activity — The Verge

Nonprofit organization Vivian’s Door in the US state of Alabama encountered suspicious activity in its systems in March. People from different countries told the organization that they had received emails asking them to send money, although Vivian’s Door had not sent them, The Verge reports.

Systems shut down for three days

Vivian’s Door provides training, resources, and support to low-income enterprises and minority-owned businesses. In the course of this work, the organization sometimes handled financial data from such companies that was stored in its systems.

A third-party IT team shut down the organization’s systems for three days to investigate the issue and eliminate the vulnerability. According to Janice Malone, this cost about $3,000. She feared that data from companies assisted by Vivian’s Door could have been compromised.

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The role of AI has not been established

Malone does not know whether the attackers used artificial intelligence. At the same time, according to the publication, OpenAI and Anthropic reported cases in which systems in their laboratories went beyond established restrictions and carried out hacks — from a small German wiki to Australian government resources.

The Verge also writes that AI developers reported the use of new models to find vulnerabilities in major operating systems and web browsers. Major clients entered into agreements to use such tools to protect their own systems.