An Accenture contractor allegedly connected their personal account for Claude Code, Anthropic’s AI coding agent, to a secure Department of Defense system earlier this year, according to sources who spoke to WIRED. The centralized system contains controlled unclassified information and is used by multiple intelligence agencies.
According to the sources, the AI agent then sent information about the DOD system, including login credentials, to a third-party website described as high-risk. One source familiar with the incident told WIRED that if the third-party software was compromised, “there could be somebody out there with the ability to log into a secure environment without anyone knowing. It’s 100 percent a national security threat and could cause irreparable harm.”
The contractor reportedly connected the secure production environment to their personal Claude account to allow the AI agent to write and deploy code. Claude is currently barred from use by DOD staff, according to WIRED.
Accenture told WIRED that “these allegations were thoroughly and independently investigated and found to be without merit. We fully complied with our legal and contractual obligations.” The company did not clarify who conducted the investigation or dispute that an incident had occurred. A DOD spokesperson said the department “does not comment on the status of its networks or systems.”
Anthropic directed WIRED to the company’s usage policy, which instructs users not to use its products to “interfere with the operation of military bases and related infrastructure” or to “bypass security controls.”