Anthropic’s recent report on the first AI-orchestrated cyber espionage campaign isn’t just another headline, it’s a turning point. Attackers leveraged AI to automate nearly every stage of the intrusion lifecycle: reconnaissance, vulnerability scanning, exploitation, credential harvesting, and exfiltration.
What’s striking is the speed and sophistication: tasks that once required weeks of human effort were completed in minutes. The AI even disguised malicious actions as benign steps, bypassing detection by appearing to perform legitimate security testing. This wasn’t hypothetical - it happened in September 2025, and it worked.
The implications are staggering. AI doesn’t just make attacks faster; it makes them scalable and stealthy. Every misconfigured system, every forgotten SaaS app, every unclassified file becomes a target.
If your organisation still relies on perimeter defences or manual processes, you’re exposed. The only way to combat automation is with automation, and that begins with understanding where your sensitive data resides and how it’s protected.
Without that foundation, even the most advanced threat detection tools will fail because they’re blind to what matters most: the data itself.
Visibility First: DSPM
You can’t defend what you can’t see. Fortra’s Data Security Posture Management (DSPM) provides real-time visibility into sensitive data across endpoints, cloud platforms, and SaaS environments.
This isn’t just about finding files, it’s about understanding context: who owns the data, who can access it, and whether it’s properly secured.
Allowing you to remediate them before attackers can, DSPM continuously scans for misconfigurations, excessive permissions, and policy gaps, so you can remediate before attackers exploit them.
Why does this matter in an AI-driven threat landscape? Because attackers now operate at machine speed. Anthropic’s report showed how AI can enumerate thousands of systems in seconds, identifying weak points faster than any human team.
DSPM flips that advantage back to defenders by automating discovery and classification. Imagine being able to pinpoint every instance of regulated data - PII, PHI, IP - across your environment and instantly flag where controls are missing.
That’s not just visibility; that’s actionable intelligence. Start by running a comprehensive data risk assessment, it’s the quickest way to uncover blind spots and prioritize fixes before they become front-page news.
Policy That Travels: DCS
Visibility is critical, but without classification, it’s just a map with no rules. Fortra’s Data Classification Suite (DCS) ensures sensitive data is labelled and governed consistently, no matter where it goes.
Classification metadata drives downstream security tools like DLP and encryption, enabling automated enforcement. Employees are empowered to make informed decisions, reducing human error - a key vulnerability that AI-powered attackers exploit.
Consider the Anthropic case: the AI broke malicious actions into harmless-looking steps to evade detection. That same tactic works against organizations with inconsistent or manual classification; if files aren’t tagged properly, security tools can’t enforce policies effectively.
With DCS, every document and email carries its own protection logic from the moment it’s created. This means even if data moves across systems or leaves your network, its sensitivity is recognized and respected.
Align classification policies with compliance frameworks like GDPR, HIPAA, and ITAR, and embed them into workflows so security becomes second nature - not an afterthought.
Enforcement Without Compromise: Digital Guardian
Once data is classified, enforcement becomes the linchpin. Fortra’s Digital Guardian delivers enterprise-grade Data Loss Prevention (DLP) across endpoints, networks, and cloud. It monitors data in use, in motion, and at rest, applying encryption and granular access controls - even after files leave your environment.
In Anthropic’s case study, AI exfiltrated sensitive data autonomously. With Digital Guardian, even if attackers gain access, the data remains unreadable and unusable.
This is where many organizations stumble: they assume encryption alone is enough, but without integrated DLP, attackers can still move data internally or externally before encryption kicks in.
Digital Guardian closes that gap by enforcing policies based on classification labels, not just file types. Combine this with secure collaboration features to protect shared files without slowing productivity. When attackers can move laterally and exfiltrate data in seconds, enforcement isn’t optional - it’s your last line of defense.
And because Digital Guardian integrates with DSPM and DCS, you get a unified ecosystem that adapts as your data landscape evolves.
The Bottom Line
AI-driven espionage isn’t a future threat, it’s here. Anthropic’s report illustrates the rapid evolution of the game. The only way to keep pace is with a layered approach that combines technology and process:
Discover and classify sensitive data everywhere.
Enforce policies consistently across all environments.
Monitor continuously and respond fast.
Fortra’s integrated portfolio - DSPM, DCS, and Digital Guardian - gives you the visibility, control, and protection you need to defend against the next wave of AI-powered attacks.
This isn’t just about compliance; it’s about resilience. In a world where adversaries operate at machine speed, your defenses must do the same.
Learn More About Fortra’s Data Security Solutions
Ready to see where your risks are? Start with a Data Risk Assessment and build a strategy that’s resilient by design.
