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TL;DR
Reuters, citing the attackers’ Cairn activity records and its own victim checks, reported that an AI-agent campaign tried more than 1,200 sites and breached websites at more than 100 companies. NorForge estimated the campaign’s AI costs at about $5,000, or roughly $50 per successful intrusion, while stressing that the estimate is uncertain. How much data was accessed or taken has not been established.
A Chinese-speaking operator used the open-source Cairn platform to direct AI agents at online shops from late September into mid-October, with the agents trying more than 1,200 sites and breaking into websites at more than 100 companies, Reuters reported. NorForge, the security firm that monitored exposed Cairn control panels, estimated the campaign’s AI costs at about $5,000—roughly $50 per successful intrusion—but said the estimate carries considerable uncertainty.
The campaign’s activity was visible because some Cairn dashboards were left accessible online. NorForge researcher Snorre Fagerland searched for exposed panels and identified more than 20 that the firm linked to likely malicious use. NorForge grouped the activity into three clusters and published its report on October 19. Reuters separately reviewed Cairn activity records and contacted companies it identified as victims.
NorForge’s largest cluster, labeled AIA0001, used Chinese-language task instructions. The firm counted more than 1,100 attack projects across 14 panels, mainly targeting sites in the United States, Japan and Australia. Reuters reported that the wider campaign tried more than 1,200 sites across the United States, Canada, Australia and Japan. These figures describe different counts in the reporting; they should not be treated as interchangeable.
Among the companies Reuters named were Deere, SharkNinja and Cummins. Deere said it took “necessary remediation actions” and had “no indication that sensitive information was accessed.” SharkNinja said an independent product-support site was affected and the threat was contained. Cummins said it was investigating a potential attack on a website operated by a third-party vendor. Reuters could not establish how much data, if any, was taken.
One operator, a swarm of agents
The campaign in numbers
What the researcher and Reuters report about the busiest group NorForge found. Counts come from the attackers’ own exposed panels; cost and success figures are estimates.
The price tag estimates
NorForge / Fagerland, “uncertainty considerable”
- ~$5 per task on average, including tasks that fail early
- $100+ for long projects with more than 1,000 intents and facts
- ~$5,000 in AI costs for the campaign, about $50 per successful hack
- ~10% success rate, NorForge’s “reasonable assumption”
How the swarm runs
Simplified, no attack details
- Shop websites are ranked by traffic and checked automatically in a browser
- Each target becomes a Cairn project: a starting point and a goal
- Agents post facts and next steps on a shared board and build on each other
- Goal: a hidden way back in to shop and payment systems, for later
- 22 SepGambit reportGambitCairn found among three AI harnesses on a criminal’s staging server (separate campaign)
- 25 SepCampaign startsReutersA Chinese-speaking operator turns agents on shops in the US, Canada, Australia and Japan
- ≈ 2 OctOpen panels foundReutersFagerland starts finding Cairn panels in malicious use, about two dozen
- mid-Oct1,200+ sites triedReutersBreaks into websites of 100+ companies, incl. Deere, SharkNinja, Cummins
- 19 OctReport and investigationNorForge · ReutersNorForge publishes “Inside Cairn”; Reuters publishes its investigation
Sources: NorForge, Inside Cairn (19 Oct 2026); Reuters (19 Oct 2026); Gambit Security (22 Sep 2026). Numbers as published, same rounding as the article.
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Lower Costs, Wider Exposure
The reported economics point to a change in the effort required to run persistent, broad campaigns. NorForge measured successful AIA0001 projects taking a little under 23 hours of automated probing on average and estimated around $5,000 in AI costs for the campaign. Dividing that estimate across the reported successful intrusions yields the firm’s approximate figure of $50 per intrusion; it is not a confirmed price for every breach, nor a measure of total attacker costs or profit.
Automation can let an operator pursue many targets without personally carrying out each step. That matters to organizations that rely on support websites, third-party vendors and older online systems, which may be less closely monitored than core services. The reports do not establish that AI makes an intrusion inherently more sophisticated. They do show how agents can carry out repetitive probing over long periods, increasing the volume of activity defenders may need to review.
The possible impact depends on what attackers accessed and whether they can return. NorForge interpreted the campaign’s goal as gaining persistent access to e-commerce or payment infrastructure for later monetization. That is the firm’s assessment, not proof that all affected sites had payment information stolen or that access was later sold or used.
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How Exposed Cairn Panels Revealed Activity
The reporting followed an earlier finding by Gambit Security. In September, the firm said it recovered a criminal staging server containing three “AI harnesses”—software that lets AI models perform tasks with some autonomy—including Hermes, Strix and Cairn. That report described a separate campaign involving at least 27 compromised companies and at least 600,000 card records taken from two of them. It is not evidence that the same operator or activity was involved in the later Cairn campaign.
NorForge then searched for Cairn dashboards indexed on the public internet. The firm found panels that lacked passwords, despite most panels requiring authorization, and began identifying suspected malicious activity around October 2. Its report described agents sharing findings and proposed next steps through a common project state, allowing work to continue across tasks while the operator provided instructions.
Cairn is a general-purpose platform rather than a product developed specifically for hacking, according to NorForge and the platform’s author. Reuters identified company victims by reviewing activity records and contacting organizations; NorForge’s report did not name those victims. This distinction matters: the firms’ technical observations and Reuters’ victim reporting come from separate parts of the investigation.
““a little under 23 hours””
— NorForge report
Data Access and Cost Estimates
The amount and type of information accessed or removed remain unknown. Reuters said it could not establish whether data was taken, and the company statements cited in its report do not resolve that question across all affected organizations. Deere reported no indication of sensitive information access; SharkNinja said the threat was contained; Cummins said it was investigating a potential attack involving a vendor-operated website.
The $50-per-intrusion figure is an estimate, not an audited cost. NorForge estimated about $5,000 in AI costs and explicitly described the uncertainty as considerable; the source material does not give a detailed accounting of other costs or establish the campaign’s financial return. The operator’s identity is also unknown. The reporting describes the person as a Chinese-speaking actor, but does not establish their location, identity or whether anyone has been arrested or charged.
Reuters’ victim count is based on its review of attacker records and outreach to companies. Some organizations did not respond, and the available reporting does not establish that every attempted site was compromised or that every compromise had the same impact.
Company Reviews and Security Checks
Companies named in the reporting may continue investigating affected systems, checking for unauthorized access and determining whether information was exposed. Cummins said it was investigating a potential attack on a third-party vendor’s website. The available source material does not give a timetable for those investigations or announce a law-enforcement case.
For security teams, the reporting points to practical checks rather than a single confirmed remedy: review externally accessible dashboards and forgotten sites, confirm that third-party support services are monitored, and assess whether alerts generated by automated activity are reaching staff who can investigate them. Those are defensive implications of the reported campaign, not findings that every organization has the same exposure.
Further detail could clarify the number of confirmed compromises, whether data was taken, and whether the attacker used any access after the initial campaign. Until companies or investigators publish those findings, the clearest confirmed picture remains the reported scale of probing, the named company responses and NorForge’s qualified estimate of AI costs.
Key Questions
What happened in the reported AI-agent campaign?
A Chinese-speaking operator used Cairn to direct AI agents at online shops. Reuters reported that the agents tried more than 1,200 sites and breached websites at more than 100 companies.
Did each successful intrusion really cost $50?
Not as a confirmed fixed price. NorForge estimated about $5,000 in AI costs for the campaign and described its estimate as considerably uncertain; the roughly $50 figure is an approximate cost per reported successful intrusion.
Was customer or payment data stolen?
That has not been established for this campaign. Reuters could not determine how much data, if any, was taken. Deere said it had no indication sensitive information was accessed, while the other company statements described in the report did not settle the question across all victims.
Who operated the agents, and has anyone been arrested?
The operator’s identity is unknown. The reporting describes a Chinese-speaking actor; the source material reports no arrest or criminal charge.
Is Cairn itself a hacking tool?
NorForge describes Cairn as a general-purpose, state-based problem-solving platform. Its author, identified as le1xia0, said it was not designed for hacking attacks and that harmful use was not their intention.
Source: ThorstenMeyerAI.com
