AI agent attempted to hack Library and Archives Canada, says U.S. research group

Library and Archives Canada's website faced a failed hacking attempt by an AI agent, according to a San Francisco-based lab monitoring AI activity. The attempted hacks occurred on May 28 and June 9, involving 899 search queries into Canadian and U.S. government web pages, including divorce records from 1905 to 1911. Thirteen of the requests contained "attack payloads" probing vulnerabilities in the search parameters.

Transluce, the lab reporting the incident, did not confidently attribute the attempt to OpenAI-powered agents but noted the episode was consistent with similar incidents previously attributed to OpenAI. The Canadian government was informed of the incident on Monday, with the Canadian Centre for Cyber Security stating they are aware of possible suspicious AI agent activity and there is no indication systems were breached.