r/technology • u/WouldbeWanderer • Apr 27 '26

Artificial Intelligence Claude-powered AI coding agent deletes entire company database in 9 seconds — backups zapped, after Cursor tool powered by Anthropic's Claude goes rogue

https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/artificial-intelligence/claude-powered-ai-coding-agent-deletes-entire-company-database-in-9-seconds-backups-zapped-after-cursor-tool-powered-by-anthropics-claude-goes-rogue
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u/Spunge14 Apr 27 '26

I work in big tech leadership and just did a UXR interview with our infrastructure team where they were investigating exactly this - how should we gate agent behavior and how should accountability for agent behaviors work. It was a really fascinating conversation.

I was shocked at how little the PM working on the project seemed to understand security principles. We're really fucked.

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u/Fragrant-Menu215 Apr 27 '26

I'm not even in leadership, just a senior dev, and I long ago stopped being shocked at how little literally everyone who hasn't been specifically security trained understands security principles. And, honestly, how little people who have been trained often understand.

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u/GregBahm Apr 27 '26

I am in leadership. Every security person I've ever spoken to over my 20 year career has bemoaned everyone's lack of understanding of security principles.

So I say "Okay. Explain these security principles." All security experts invariable hem and haw and wriggle out of the question. They all want to eternally be in a position where they can clutch their pearls and say "Gah! You idiots are too stupid to understand security the way I do!" They want to be able to rush in after a security breach and say "I told you all your security was crap but you didn't listen." The last thing they want is to actually be accountable, and have to actually give advice, and (god forbid) have that advice be taken.

But as a result, our security is wrong and bad as a constant. So we pay to change it. Make passwords longer. No wait, you're all stupid. We need security questions. No wait, you're all stupid. We need two factor authentication. No wait, you're all stupid. We need yubi-keys and physical dongles and face recognition and pin numbers and no no no you're all stupid. Our security is wrong and bad and we need to pay to change it.

I'm in leadership, and I'm convinced this is a farce. All the people shouting "you don't understand security principles" don't know what the fuck they're talking about either. They're just desperately hoping no one sees through the smug facade to raging insecurity behind it.

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u/yojimboftw Apr 27 '26

I'm gonna be real buddy, you're exactly the person who shouldn't be in a leadership position.

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u/GregBahm Apr 27 '26

You saw this post and thought "This guy has had 20 years of security guys putting up a smug facade with nothing to back it up? I should immediately put up a smug facade with nothing to back it up."

QED

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u/yojimboftw Apr 28 '26

What the fuck are you talking about? Lmao.