Spain Reports First AI Agent Attack on Personal Data, AEPD Says

Spain’s Data Protection Agency (AEPD) has reported what it describes as the country’s first personal-data breach caused by an attack carried out using an AI agent. In a report submitted by an unnamed organisation and described on 14 September, an unidentified hacker reportedly used a “well-known language model” to search generic files belonging to the victim.

The activity allegedly uncovered exposed corporate credentials, enabling access to an internal system, where the AI then identified and exploited a vulnerability in an enterprise application.

The attacker was able to modify personal-data records and access corporate invoices, according to the AEPD’s account. The agency has not identified the organisation, attacker, language model, affected records or specific vulnerabilities, and Dark Reading said details remained limited. The report therefore confirms the alleged use of an AI agent in the intrusion, but does not establish how many people were affected or whether the activity is part of a wider campaign.

Spain’s National Cryptologic Centre (CCN) had warned in June that offensive AI could accelerate and automate familiar attack techniques, shortening the time between finding and exploiting vulnerabilities. The AEPD highlighted the need to protect identities and credentials and to review incident-response processes so detection, containment and response can operate at machine speed.

Security experts quoted in the report said authenticated access should be assessed through the user’s behaviour — including what data was accessed and changed — rather than treated as inherently trustworthy.