--- format: "aidr-story-markdown/v1" id: "d8b84dcfaf9237c3483758591c961286d4ce0ad077f9896121597c3745c15d31" canonical_url: "https://aidr.today/d8b84dcf?lang=en" title: "Iranian Security Units Used Claude to Surveil Thousands, Anthropic Says" lang: "en" requested_lang: "en" available_langs: ["en","vi"] translation_fallback: null fallback_fields: [] published_at: "2026-09-13T10:41:39.000Z" category: "Regulation" topics: ["anthropic","claude","safety","llm"] source_urls: ["https://huggingnews.com/ai/iranian-security-units-used-claude-to-surveil-thousands-anthropic-says-3a7e8a02","https://x.com/IranIntl_En/status/2098978564217454822"] summary: "Iranian domestic security actors used Claude to build a Firefox extension disguised as a prayer times app that harvested identities from social networks, Anthropic said in a threat intelligence report published Sept. 10. The actors profiled 6,388 Iranians this year, part of surveillance operations targeting thousands of people and identifying opposition and diaspora accounts. Iranian actors also used Claude to analyze 155,216 social media posts, Anthropic said. A separate operation linked to the MEK used the AI to impersonate an activist and profile people inside Iran. Anthropic said Iranian actors obtained assistance by breaking projects into seemingly harmless coding tasks, even as Claude blocked many explicitly harmful requests. The company banned every account tied to the surveillance operations it uncovered and strengthened its safeguards." --- # Iranian Security Units Used Claude to Surveil Thousands, Anthropic Says > [Open the canonical story]() **Published:** 2026-09-13T10:41:39.000Z **Category:** Regulation **Topics:** anthropic, claude, safety, llm ## Summary Iranian domestic security actors used Claude to build a Firefox extension disguised as a prayer times app that harvested identities from social networks, Anthropic said in a threat intelligence report published Sept\. 10\. The actors profiled 6,388 Iranians this year, part of surveillance operations targeting thousands of people and identifying opposition and diaspora accounts\. Iranian actors also used Claude to analyze 155,216 social media posts, Anthropic said\. A separate operation linked to the MEK used the AI to impersonate an activist and profile people inside Iran\. Anthropic said Iranian actors obtained assistance by breaking projects into seemingly harmless coding tasks, even as Claude blocked many explicitly harmful requests\. The company banned every account tied to the surveillance operations it uncovered and strengthened its safeguards\. ## Sources - [Story source]() - [Story source]()