A hacker used AI agents to break into more than 100 websites. What small businesses should check this week
The AI security firm Norforge says one attacker used an army of AI agents, working mostly on their own, to break into more than 100 websites. Reuters reports the victims included John Deere, SharkNinja and Cummins, and that successful breaches took about 23 hours each. The sites that fell were often side sites: a product support page, a site run by a third-party vendor. That is exactly what most small businesses have.
What happened
According to The Verge, citing Norforge and Reuters, Norforge found the attacks through exposed instances of Cairn, an open-source AI platform that calls itself a “general-purpose problem-solving engine”. A user sets a start and an end point, and the agents work towards it and log their progress. Norforge found more than 20 exposed Cairn instances it considers likely malicious.
The most active attacker hit companies in the US, Canada, Australia and Japan. Reuters reports the attacker described the preferred intrusion tactics in fewer than 100 Chinese characters, and the agents did most of the rest.
The companies’ responses point to where the risk sits. John Deere said there is no indication sensitive information was accessed. SharkNinja said a standalone product support site was affected and the threat is contained. Cummins is investigating a report about a website run by one of its third-party vendors. Cairn’s creator says the platform “was never a hacking tool”.
What it means for you
- Your smallest website is now worth attacking. When agents do the work, an attacker no longer has to pick targets carefully. An old landing page, a forgotten WordPress install or a test subdomain costs almost nothing to try. List every site and subdomain you own and shut down what you no longer use.
- Updates and logins are the cheap defence. Keep the CMS, plugins and themes updated, remove plugins you don’t use, turn on two-factor login for every admin account, and delete old admin users. These are the gaps automated attacks find first.
- Ask your web agency or host who is responsible. Two of the three named cases involved a side site or a vendor-run site. If someone else runs your website, ask who applies updates, who keeps backups, and how quickly they would notice a break-in. Get the answer in writing.
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Sources
- The Verge, 19 Oct 2026: A hacker broke into John Deere and SharkNinja with an army of AI agents (in English)
The Verge cites findings from Norforge and reporting by Reuters.