# AI Hacker Breaks Into 100+ Sites

> Chinese hacker used AI agents to breach 1,200 sites for $5,000.
- Title: AI Hacker Breaks Into 100+ Sites · mint | Shortify
- Summary: Chinese hacker used AI agents to breach 1,200 sites for $5,000. A Chinese-speaking hacker exploited AI tools to compromise over 100 sites, spending $5,000 on…
- Keywords: ai hacking, cairn, deere, sharkninja, cummins, deepseek, anthropic, claudia code, norforg, hacker, news, india
- Source: mint — https://livemint.com/technology/how-one-hacker-used-ai-agents-and-a-few-thousand-dollars-to-break-into-scores-of-sites-11792404169869.html
- Published: 2026-10-19T10:02:49+00:00
- Read time: 1 min
- Topics: ai hacking, cairn, deere, sharkninja, cummins, deepseek, anthropic, claudia code, norforg, hacker, news, india
## Hacker's AI Break-In
A Chinese-speaking hacker broke into over 100 company websites using AI agents.
## AI Agents Handle Breaches
AI agents autonomously probed and broke into sites without human intervention.
## Cairn Platform Used
Cybersecurity researcher found 20+ Cairn instances being used for malicious activity.
## Token Costs
The campaign cost $5,000 in AI tokens, about $50 per successful breach.
## Hacker's Instructions
Hacker gave AI agents under 100 Chinese characters of instructions for breaches.
## Successful Breaches
AI agents attempted 1,200 sites with successful breaches taking 23 hours each.
## Data Extraction
Deere said no sensitive data was accessed while SharkNinja confirmed only product support sites were compromised.
## Hacker's Identity
Hacker's social media handle is le1xia0, who claims Cairn isn't designed for hacking.
## Key takeaway

A Chinese-speaking hacker exploited AI tools to compromise over 100 sites, spending $5,000 on token costs.