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Attackers Steal METR API Key and Consume AI Credits Worth About $600,000
METR disclosed attackers stole an API key and burned about $600,000 in inference credits, plus a second probing campaign against its infrastructure.
METR, the AI model evaluation non-profit, disclosed two 2026 security incidents. In March, attackers found a publicly exposed EC2 instance behind a fail-open authentication bug, prompted an agent to reveal its API key, added SSH persistence, and consumed roughly $600,000 in inference credits over three weeks. In May, a likely financially motivated actor systematically probed METR's public infrastructure using agents for vulnerability discovery, credential stuffing, OAuth token grants and staff phishing, with no confirmed access to non-public data.
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Attacker stole a METR API key, used $600K worth of credits, and no one noticed for weeks
Attackers stole a METR API key via an exposed agent-run EC2 instance and consumed about $600,000 in public model credits over three weeks.
AI evaluation nonprofit METR disclosed two incidents. In March 2026, a fail-open bug in a vibe-coded app disabled authentication on a publicly accessible EC2 instance; an attacker prompted the running agent to reveal a model provider API key, added an SSH key for persistence, and consumed roughly $600,000 in free public-model credits over three weeks without being noticed. In May 2026, attackers probed METR's public infrastructure using agents, automated vulnerability discovery, credential stuffing, OAuth token attempts, and phishing; a separately exposed read-only SQL mechanism found by a bug bounty hunter risked leaking unpublished evaluation data, but no access to non-public data was confirmed.
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AI Model Evaluator METR Hit by Credential Theft, Probing
Threat actors stole an API key from AI evaluator METR and consumed $600,000 in public model credits; a second campaign probed its infrastructure.
Dark Reading reports that AI model evaluation nonprofit METR suffered a credential theft in which attackers obtained an API key that led to consumption of $600,000 worth of public AI model inference credits. METR also faced a separate sustained campaign in which financially motivated actors probed its publicly accessible infrastructure and attempted initial access via credential stuffing and OAuth token grants. No evidence of access to sensitive information was reported in either incident.
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Week in review: Records allegedly stolen from Azure tenants, Medusa ransomware hits 500+ orgs
Week in review: Medusa ransomware hit 500+ orgs per CISA, millions of Azure tenant records allegedly stolen, SafePal and French tax authority breaches disclosed.
Help Net Security's weekly roundup covers the FBI, CISA, and HHS joint advisory update reporting Medusa ransomware has breached more than 500 organizations since June 2021, and threat actor TheHatman's claim of millions of employee records stolen from Azure tenants of Fortune 500 firms including McDonald's, Vodafone, Kyndryl, and Tata Consultancy Services, per Hudson Rock. It also covers the SafePal breach affecting 39,798 customers, France's DGFiP breach exposing data on 678,000 individuals, and UT San delaying its fall semester after a cyberattack. Security items include critical unauthenticated GitLab flaw CVE-2026-19478, an actively exploited patched macOS Screen Sharing flaw deploying a cryptominer, US charges against 17 Mabna Institute Iranian hackers over 31TB of stolen academic data, and Google Mandiant's AI agents finding 100+ high-severity vulnerabilities.
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Love Electric Breach: 877,000 Driver Records Offered for $600
A forum seller is offering 877,000 driver records from UK EV salary-sacrifice broker Love Electric for $600; researchers found the sample looks authentic.
A seller named seraphims advertised 877,000 records from Love Electric Financial Services, an Edinburgh-based FCA-regulated EV salary sacrifice broker, for $600 in cryptocurrency. Ransomnews analysts verified a 999-row SQL Server export containing names, addresses, National Insurance numbers, and driving licence numbers, with internal relationships and licence-format checks consistent with genuine production data. The full record count remains unverified, and the company had not commented at publication; the breach highlights risks from third-party payroll-adjacent providers.
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