Anthropic widens Claude access with fewer restrictions for security teams

Anthropic is expanding its Cyber Verification Program, giving more vetted security professionals Claude access with fewer safety restrictions for penetration testing, malware analysis and vulnerability research. It says partners in the predecessor program found at least 129,000 confirmed vulnerabilities from April through July 2026, over 33,000 of them high-severity or critical.

Why it matters: This is a vetted-access model for dual-use capability: loosen guardrails for verified defenders rather than for everyone. The vulnerability counts suggest AI-driven discovery is now operating at industrial scale, which helps explain pressures like Google freezing its open-source bug bounty over AI-generated report floods.