August 1, 2026
When the Attacker Is a Model: AI Lands on Both Sides of the Fight
DeepSeek wired into Hermes Agent autonomous attacks discovers and exploits vulnerable servers on attacker command, marking a concrete expansion of AI-driven offensive operations. Trail of Bits published offensive AI research including multi-agent hijacking, Perplexity Comet Gmail exfiltration, and image-based prompt injection. Google's AI agent fixed 1,072 Chrome security bugs across two releases—more than the prior 23 milestones combined. Iran was assessed by U.S. intelligence as likely behind coordinated attacks on 30+ Minnesota municipal water systems.