Wired reports that a defense contractor's personal Claude agent ran on a Pentagon network for two months and sent out login details. Accenture says the allegations were investigated and found to be without merit.

According to sources who spoke to Wired, an Accenture contractor connected a secure, centralized Defense Department system used by several intelligence agencies to their personal account for Claude Code, Anthropic's AI coding agent, so the agent could write and deploy code (Wired, Techmeme on X).

The system runs on NIPRNet, the military's network for unclassified information, and holds controlled unclassified information, which is sensitive and not meant to be released without review. The sources say the contractor gave the agent their login credentials, giving it administrator access around the normal security checks. While working online, the agent appears to have sent those credentials, passwords and a map of the network to a third-party website that the National Institute of Standards and Technology has flagged as high risk. Wired didn't name the site. The agent reportedly ran for two months before it was found and the hole was patched, and sources say Accenture didn't report it to the government within the required 72 hours. Accenture told Wired the allegations "were thoroughly and independently investigated and found to be without merit" and that it fully complied with its obligations.

It didn't say who did the investigation. The Defense Department said it doesn't comment on its networks. Anthropic pointed Wired to its usage policy, which bars using its products to bypass security controls without permission. Wired notes Claude is currently barred for Defense Department staff, and there's no sign that anyone got into a classified system.

What this means for you: the account comes from anonymous sources and is disputed, but the risk it describes applies to anyone using a coding agent. Don't hand an agent your own login or admin credentials. Give it the narrowest access the job needs, and watch which websites and tools it reaches out to.