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China warns about AI risks with Anthropic's Claude Code - CNBC BEIJING — China on Wednesday warned of "back-door" security risks affecting companies that use U.S.-based company Anthropic's Claude Code artificial intelligence tool. It comes as the U.S.-China tech race intensifies, with Anthropic last month blaming Chinese company Alibaba for attempting toextract its AI capabilities, which are not officially available in China. Alibaba did not comment on the accusations at the time. Many locals in China have found ways to use U.S. AI tools, however. In March, a Xiaomi AI developer said at a state-organized forum that many were using Claude Code. And Alibaba has ordered its employees to stop using Anthropic tools for work starting July 10,CNBC confirmed on Monday. The Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said Wednesday its cybersecurity threat platform found "AI coding tool Claude Code contains a security back-door vulnerability thatposes a serious threat." The autonomous coding tool can send sensitive information to a remote server without a user's consent,the statement saidin Chinese, according to a CNBC translation. It noted that the information could includ…

One of China’s biggest ecommerce companies bans Claude Code from July 10 Alibaba has banned Anthropic's Claude Code from its offices starting July 10, 2026, citing 'high-risk software' and potential backdoors. Internal assessments flagged concerns after reports suggested the tool covertly checked user locations and affiliations with Chinese AI labs. This move escalates tensions, following Anthropic's accusation of Alibaba's Qwen lab using fraudulent accounts for data scraping.

Anthropic's Claude Code Reportedly Uses Hidden Code to Detect Chinese Users Home Cyber Security Anthropic’s Claude Code Reportedly Uses Hidden Code to Detect Chinese Users By Guru Baran June 30, 2026 A Reddit disclosure has ignited a serious debate about developer trust and covert surveillance, alleging that Anthropic embedded undisclosed detection logic inside its Claude Code CLI tool , specifically targeting users in China or those routing traffic through Chinese AI lab proxies. A Reddit user identified as LegitMichel777 on the r/ClaudeAI subreddit posted detailed findings on June 30, 2026, claiming to have reverse-engineered Claude Code while attempting to restore a disabled remote control feature in version 2.1.196. During that process, he discovered obfuscated code that had been silently present since version 2.1.91, released on April 2, 2026, with no mention in the release notes. According to the disclosure , the code performs a multi-factor check whenever a proxy is detected. It reads the system’s timezone to determine whether it matches Asia/Shanghai or Asia/Urumqi , and simultaneously inspects the proxy URL against a hardcoded list of Chinese domains and known Chinese AI …

China issues 'backdoor' security alert over Anthropic's Claude Code ... Synopsis China's industry ministry identified a serious security backdoor risk in Anthropic's Claude Code. The National Vulnerability Database warned of unauthorised data transmission from affected versions. NVDB advised ​that ​organisations and users should immediately review ⁠affected systems and either uninstall the ​impacted versions or upgrade to the ​latest secure release in which the alleged backdoor code has been removed. Agencies A Chinese industry regulator warned users on Wednesday of a "security backdoor" embedded in versions of US artificial intelligence company Anthropic's coding tool, Claude Code. The alleged backdoor could allow the software to "transmit sensitive information", including users' locations and identity-related identifiers, back to Anthropic's servers without users' consent, said China's National Vulnerability Database (NVDB), a cybersecurity platform. Claude Code is an AI coding agent that can generate computer code, debug software and review code based on user prompts. San Francisco startup Anthropic blocks users and companies in China and other nations it deems adversarial fr…

🚨 BREAKING: AI companies tracking users without disclosure is a red flag, even if intentions are benign. Anthropic quietly embedded code in Claude to flag users based on location, proxies, or ties to Chinese labs. They've removed it after researchers #Anthropic #Claude #AI #ArtificialIntelligence

Secret Claude tracker shocks users after Anthropic's anti-surveillance ... Text settings Story text Size Small Standard Large Width * Standard Wide Links Standard Orange * Subscribers only Learn more Minimize to nav Anthropic quickly removed a tracker secretly monitoring Claude Code users in China after a security researcher exposed the hidden code and condemned the spyware-like tracking as a “serious breach of user trust.” Last week, a web developer known as “Thereallo” was researching privacy issues in Claude Code and was shocked to find that the AI firm was using “prompt steganography” to hide code that tracks Chinese users “in plain sight.” This code wasn’t malicious, but it was sending information to Anthropic that most users wouldn’t detect, relying on shorthand markers to quietly flag users’ timezone, proxy, and potential connection to Chinese AI labs that Anthropic has accused of distillation attacks . On X, Anthropic engineer Thariq Shihipar confirmed that the tracker was added to Claude Code as an “experiment” in March. According to Shihipar, the code “was meant to prevent account abuse from unauthorized resellers and protect against distillation.” Regarding the …

Alibaba bans Claude for staff – Anthropic didn't want them using it anyway Chinese tech giant Alibaba has ordered staff to stop using Anthropic's Claude Code, after it was found to be flagging users connecting from China. But Anthropic is already trying its best to stop Chinese firms from using Claude at all, and accuses Alibaba of running large "distillation" campaigns against it, saying it deployed around 25,000 fake accounts to train its own models on Claude.

China warns of "security backdoor" in Anthropic AI coding tool Beijing — A Chinese industry regulator warned users on Wednesday of a "security backdoor" embedded in versions of U.S. artificial intelligence giant Anthropic's coding tool, Claude Code. The alleged backdoor could enable the software to "transmit sensitive information," including users' locations and identity-related identifiers, back to Anthropic's servers without users' consent, said China's National Vulnerability Database (NVDB), a cybersecurity platform. Claude Code is an AI coding agent that can generate computer code, debug software and review code based on user prompts. San Francisco startup Anthropic blocks users and companies in China and other nations it deems adversarial from accessing its products, but it is still possible to use them in the country through VPN or third-party proxy services. The NVDB, which is affiliated with China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, said on its website that it had recently "detected that the AI coding tool Claude Code contains security backdoor risks, posing a severe threat". Anthropic hasn't responded to AFP requests for comment on the allegations, which fi…

Anthropic Slams China for AI Theft, But Critics Say the Outrage ... - PCMag Anthropic is accusing Chinese developers of stealing Claude chatbot trade secrets, but critics note that Anthropic itself has a record of scraping the internet for AI training. On Monday, the San Francisco company said the Chinese firms behind DeepSeek , Moonshot AI, and MiniMax "created over 24,000 fraudulent accounts and generated over 16 million exchanges with Claude, extracting its capabilities to train and improve their own models." The company claims the Chinese developers are essentially trying to clone Claude by tricking the chatbot into revealing "the internal reasoning behind a completed response." Last year, OpenAI accused DeepSeek of doing the same, but for its own AI models. You May Also Like In Anthropic’s case, the company already blocks commercial access to China for national security reasons. However, the Chinese AI developers allegedly bypass those restrictions by tapping "commercial proxy services which resell access to Claude and other frontier AI models at scale." These "hydra clusters" then use "sprawling networks of fraudulent accounts that distribute traffic across our API as well a…

China issues security alert on Anthropic's Claude Code, flags 'backdoor' risk that can leak your... China's National Vulnerability DataBase has warned that Anthropic's Claude Code contains a security "backdoor" capable of secretly sending users' location and identity data to remote servers without consent. The alert covers Claude Code versions 2.1.91 to 2.1.196 and urges users to uninstall or upgrade immediately. It comes amid rising US-China AI tensions, days after Alibaba banned employees from using the coding tool at work.

Alibaba bans staff from using Claude Code over Anthropic spyware concerns Alibaba Group Holding has banned its employees from using Anthropic’s Claude Code for work, citing security risks related to the US artificial intelligence firm’s previous use of hidden code to track Chinese users – a move that has sparked widespread backlash in recent days. “As Claude Code was recently discovered to carry back-door risks, after comprehensive evaluation, Claude Code has now been added to a list of high-risk software with security vulnerabilities,” Alibaba said on Thursday in an...

China says it found a backdoor in Anthropic's Claude Code, quietly sending location data WSJ and CNA call it a security vulnerability CBS quotes an Anthropic engineer calling it IP protection against copycats

🇨🇳 China issues security alert for Anthropic's Claude Code tool over potential data leaks. Authorities advise uninstalling or upgrading vulnerable versions (2.1.91-2.1.196) due to risks of sensitive developer data transmission. Critical for crypto/blockchain. #AI #cybersecurity #China

Anthropic hits back after China warns of Claude Code ‘backdoor’ risks US artificial intelligence company Anthropic said users in China being advised to uninstall its flagship Claude Code product were not supposed to be using it in the first place, responding after Beijing warned of security “backdoor” risks. The company’s statement comes after a cybersecurity platform managed by China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said on Wednesday that Anthropic’s agentic coding tool poses “a serious threat” to Chinese users, in the latest escalation of...

Anthropic’s anti-China AI blocks: Company embeds ‘spyware’ code to prevent distillation US tech firm Anthropic is employing advanced code to block Chinese users from its AI models, citing national security concerns. The company has identified and suspended accounts suspected of being Chinese-controlled, and is actively combating proxy networks. This aggressive stance follows an accusation that Alibaba engaged in a massive AI "distillation attack," attempting to clone Anthropic's advanced capabilities at a fraction of the cost.

China warns of 'security backdoor' in Anthropic AI coding tool <p>A Chinese industry regulator warned users on Wednesday of a “security backdoor” embedded in versions of US artificial intelligence company Anthropic’s coding tool, Claude Code.</p> <p>The alleged backdoor could allow the software to “transmit sensitive information”, including users’ locations and identity-related identifiers, back to Anthropic’s servers without users’ consent, said China’s National Vulnerability Database (NVDB), a cybersecurity platform.</p> <p>Claude Code is an AI coding agent that can generate computer code, debug software and review code based on user prompts.</p> <p>San Francisco startup Anthropic blocks users and companies in China and other nations it deems adversarial from accessing its products, but it is still possible to use them in the country through a VPN or third-party proxy services.</p> <p>The NVDB, which is affiliated with China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, said on its website that it had recently “detected that the AI coding tool Claude Code contains security backdoor risks, posing a severe threat”.</p> <p>Anthropic has not responded to <em>AFP</em> requests f…

Anthropic deployed covert monitoring software to track China-based ... Anthropic deployed covert monitoring software to track China-based users of Claude The AI safety company embedded steganographic markers in its Claude Code tool to catch suspected industrial-scale model theft by Chinese firms Share Add us on Google by Editorial Team Jul. 6, 2026 Anthropic, the company that built its brand on AI safety and responsible development, quietly embedded surveillance code into its Claude Code assistant to monitor users it suspected of stealing its technology. The targets: operators linked to Chinese tech giants allegedly siphoning Claude’s outputs to train competing models. The covert monitoring project launched in March 2026 and collected user environment data like timezones and proxy settings. It also deployed steganographic markers, essentially invisible digital watermarks, into prompts sent to Anthropic’s servers. Advertisement What Anthropic found, and what it did about it Anthropic identified what it described as approximately 28.8 million unauthorized exchanges linked to operators affiliated with Alibaba. That’s industrial-scale distillation, a process where one AI model’s outpu…

Hidden code in Claude Code secretly flagged Chinese users Hidden code in Claude Code secretly flagged Chinese users Maximilian Schreiner View the LinkedIn Profile of Maximilian Schreiner Jul 1, 2026 Anthropic / NBPro prompted by THE DECODER Anthropic is rolling back a covert surveillance feature in its coding tool Claude Code after it sparked outrage on social media. A Reddit post by user LegitMichel777 first exposed the feature. According to the post, Claude Code has been secretly checking since version 2.1.91, released April 2, 2026, whether users with an active proxy are located in China, routing through a Chinese URL, or connected to a Chinese AI lab. Hidden signals buried in the system prompt The data gets transmitted through barely perceptible changes to the system prompt, a form of steganography. Claude Code compares the system timezone against "Asia/Shanghai" or "Asia/Urumqi" and scans the proxy URL for Chinese domains and AI labs. Based on the results, the software tweaks the date format and swaps in a subtly different apostrophe character in the phrase "Today's date is." Users can't see the difference. Anthropic can read it instantly. According to LegitMichel777, Anthrop…