Anthropic Expands Cyber Verification Program to Three Tiers, Opening Restricted Claude Features to More Security Teams
Anthropic has expanded its Cyber Verification Program (CVP), integrating previous projects into three access tiers: Defense, Red Team, and Specialized. Vetted security teams and individual researchers can now use Claude models for vulnerability research, malware analysis, and penetration testing, tasks typically blocked by safety filters in public models.
On October 7, 2026, Anthropic announced an expansion of its Cyber Verification Program (CVP) to open powerful Claude model capabilities to a wider pool of security professionals with reduced safety restrictions. Previously, publicly available Claude models blocked most vulnerability research, malware analysis, incident response, and penetration testing because the same capabilities could also aid attackers. While basic tasks like code review or patching known flaws remained possible without special access, advanced cybersecurity tasks were strictly limited.
The new CVP splits access into three tiers. "Defense Access" is open to corporate security teams, government agencies, universities, critical infrastructure operators, open-source developers, and individual researchers, primarily for incident response and vulnerability validation. "Red Team Access" allows authorized attack simulations but is limited to organizations only. "Specialized Access" is reserved for testing systems like flight controls, power grids, or banking infrastructure; for this tier, Anthropic vets every applicant together with the US government.
Data from the predecessor program, Project Glasswing, provides initial evidence of effectiveness. According to Anthropic, partners found at least 129,000 confirmed vulnerabilities between April and July 2026, with more than 33,000 classified as high-severity or critical. However, these numbers come from surveys of a subset of partners, and Anthropic states the real-world impact is likely at least five times higher. Several partners reported that AI sped up their work by months or even years. While this structural change broadens defensive AI usage, actual adoption rates and independent verification of vulnerability discovery speed remain to be seen.