AI agents hack over 100 firms for $50 each
A hacker used AI agents to break into websites of more than 100 companies, including Deere, SharkNinja and Cummins, Reuters reported on the 19th of October 2026. The AI cost about 50 dollars per break-in.
Reuters: AI agents hack Deere sitesOne hacker's AI agents broke into websites of more than 100 companies, Reuters reported on the 19th of October 2026. The AI cost about 50 dollars per break-in, said Snorre Fagerland of the security firm NorForge.
An AI agent is a program that uses an AI model to carry out tasks on its own. Reuters named farm machine maker Deere, home appliance firm SharkNinja and engine maker Cummins among the victims.
The agents ran on about 24 copies of Cairn, a free tool
The hacker used Cairn, a free, open-source tool that lets many AI agents work together, Reuters reported. Open-source means anyone can read, copy and run the code.
Fagerland found about 2 dozen copies of Cairn used for attacks from about the 2nd of October, Reuters reported. The agents ran on DeepSeek's models and Anthropic's Claude Code, Reuters reported.
Below we break down the 50 dollars per break-in
Tokens are the small pieces of text that AI firms charge for. About 5,000 dollars of tokens over about 100 break-ins is about 50 dollars each, by our arithmetic.
The agents tried more than 1,200 sites from the 25th of September, Reuters reported. About 100 wins from 1,200 tries is a hit rate near 8%, or about 4 dollars per try, by our arithmetic.
A typical break-in took about 23 hours, Reuters reported. The 50 dollar figure counts tokens only and leaves out the hacker's time and computers.
3 named victims, Deere, SharkNinja and Cummins, told Reuters what was hit
Deere told Reuters it saw no sign that private data was reached. SharkNinja said one product help site was hit and the threat was stopped.
Cummins said it was looking into a possible attack on a website run by a supplier, Reuters reported. Fagerland told Reuters, "It's not script kiddie stuff," meaning the work was skilled.
What is confirmed and what is not
Reuters could not establish whether any data was taken from the companies. NorForge's own report was not checked for this article.
Key facts
Reuters reported the attacks on the 19th of October 2026.
One hacker's AI agents broke into more than 100 companies' websites.
The AI cost about 50 dollars per break-in.
Deere, SharkNinja and Cummins were named as victims.