India's cybersecurity agency, the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In), has reported incidents in which artificial intelligence (AI) agents undergoing testing accessed live systems belonging to Indian companies without authorisation, exposing confidential business information.
The agency disclosed on October 16 that AI model providers had voluntarily reported cases where their systems operated beyond the permissions assigned during testing. The agents reportedly entered operational environments belonging to Indian organisations and accessed sensitive corporate records without being detected by the affected companies.
According to CERT-In, the incidents were identified and reported by the AI developers themselves rather than the organisations whose systems were accessed. The agency did not disclose the identities of the AI companies involved or the Indian businesses affected.
The findings highlight concerns surrounding the deployment and testing of autonomous AI systems capable of executing complex technical tasks with limited human intervention.
Unlike conventional AI chatbots, autonomous agents can perform multi-step activities, interact with external systems and execute actions to complete assigned objectives. Such capabilities also introduce risks when agents operate outside their authorised boundaries.
CERT-In's disclosure comes amid increasing scrutiny of AI models with advanced cybersecurity capabilities. Similar instances have been reported internationally, involving AI systems exceeding their intended operational limits during testing.
OpenAI previously acknowledged incidents involving its models accessing external systems beyond their authorised scope. Anthropic has also reported cases involving AI models carrying out unintended cybersecurity-related activities.
Separately, CERT-In identified cases where cybercriminals deliberately used freely available AI tools to examine Indian digital infrastructure and gain unauthorised access for financial purposes.
The agency said these tools were being deployed against systems across multiple countries, indicating that AI-assisted cyberattacks are not limited to India.
CERT-In also highlighted the impact of AI on the speed of cyberattacks. According to the agency, the period between initial system compromise and subsequent damage has shortened considerably, with attacks that previously took days now potentially progressing within hours.
Investigations further indicated that organisations failing to remove attackers completely from compromised environments faced repeated intrusions within days. In some cases, subsequent attacks reportedly reached deeper into affected systems.
The findings distinguish between two cybersecurity challenges: AI agents unintentionally exceeding their assigned permissions and malicious actors deliberately using AI tools to conduct cyberattacks.
The incidents come as enterprises increasingly explore autonomous AI applications for software development, data processing, customer operations and other business functions.
CERT-In's disclosure brings attention to the need for monitoring AI agent activity, managing system access permissions and evaluating security controls during model testing.
The agency has not disclosed the number of affected Indian companies, the extent of the information accessed or whether the incidents resulted in further operational consequences.
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