AI Agents Used to Hack John Deere, SharkNinja, and Cummins in Automated Cyberattack Campaign
Norforge says one hacker used Cairn, an open-source AI platform, to automate breaches at 100+ websites across the US, Canada, Australia and Japan. The attacks took about 23 hours each; more than 20 Cairn instances may be malicious.
A single hacker broke into more than 100 websites using an army of largely autonomous AI agents, according to findings published in October 2026 by AI security firm Norforge. Victims included major companies such as John Deere, SharkNinja, and Cummins, Reuters reported.
Norforge uncovered the attacks through exposed activity on Cairn, an open-source AI platform that describes itself as a “general-purpose problem-solving engine.” Cairn allows users to set a start and end point for AI agents, which then document their progress as they complete a task. Norforge found that the same framework can be used to orchestrate cyberattacks with minimal human involvement.
The hacker responsible for the 100-plus breaches was identified as the most active among the exposed Cairn instances Norforge discovered. The attacker targeted companies based in the US, Canada, Australia, and Japan, outlining preferred intrusion tactics using fewer than 100 Chinese characters. Successful breaches took approximately 23 hours to complete. Norforge identified more than 20 exposed Cairn instances it considers likely malicious.
The three named companies offered limited details on the impact. A John Deere spokesperson told Reuters there is “no indication that sensitive information was accessed.” Cummins said it is “investigating the report of a potential cyber-attack on a website operated by one of our third-party vendors.” SharkNinja said the breach affected a standalone site containing product support information and that it has contained the threat.
Norforge says it is working to have the malicious Cairn instances taken down. Cairn’s creator, who goes by @le1xia0, said earlier this month that the platform “was never a ‘hacking tool,'” and that “misuse is a human decision, not a feature of the engine.”
The incident highlights growing concerns about AI-powered cyberattacks, as increasingly capable tools allow bad actors to carry out large-scale intrusions with limited manual effort.