Chinese cybersecurity company 360 Security Technology announced on Wednesday that it has created what it describes as a domestic response to Anthropic's Mythos, portraying the American model as a strategic cyber capability that China cannot afford to lack. According to reports from Reuters, founder Zhou Hongyi presented two AI security solutions under the moniker 'Yitian Tulong' during a speech at the ISC.AI 2026 cybersecurity conference in Beijing. The term is derived from a classic Chinese martial arts novel that means 'Heavenly Sword and Dragon Saber.' Zhou argued that capabilities that can find software flaws at scale amount to a national strategic asset, useful both for protecting critical infrastructure and for offensive purposes. He warned that such tools 'cannot be held only by others,' arguing that China risked one-way exposure if American firms could scan systems worldwide using Mythos-like technology while Chinese companies lacked equivalent tools.
An AI model developed by Anthropic has successfully identified vulnerabilities in highly sensitive US government computer systems during a testing exercise, according to a US official speaking to the Associated Press. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, confirmed that Anthropic teamed up with US intelligence agencies to conduct the tests using the company's Mythos model. 'This tool broke into almost all of our classified systems, not in weeks but in hours,' Democratic Senator Mark Warner of Virginia stated during an 11 June hearing before the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, attributing the information to the head of the National Security Agency (NSA) and US Cyber Command, General Joshua Rudd. The testing was carried out through an Anthropic initiative called Project Glasswing, which brought together technology companies in a bid to secure critical software from the 'severe' fallout that Mythos could pose to public safety, national security and the economy. However, the official clarified that while Mythos identified certain vulnerabilities within hours, it did not mean the model was able to exploit them within that time.
According to a transcript released by 360, Zhou stated that 'Tulongfeng', which he referred to as 'China's version of Mythos,' was created to automatically find software vulnerabilities, while another system, 'Yitianzhen,' was created to automate cyber defence and incident response. According to 360, Tulongfeng discovered 3,432 software flaws, of which 105 were verified by Chinese authorities. The statements could not be independently verified by Reuters.
Cybersecurity experts have cautioned that Mythos, a software vulnerability detection technology that was previewed in April, could intensify intrusions. As reported by Reuters, citing national security concerns, the United States ordered Anthropic to halt exports of a less potent version of the application this month. In April, Anthropic announced that Mythos Preview had discovered 'thousands' of significant flaws in web browsers, operating systems, and other software. The model's capacity to identify weaknesses in critical systems has raised concerns in Washington and other major cities, as well as throughout the cybersecurity sector. According to the AI Security Institute's assessment, Mythos Preview succeeds 73% of the time on expert-level tasks that no model could complete before April 2025, and when directed and given network access, 'could execute multi-stage attacks on vulnerable networks and discover and exploit vulnerabilities autonomously' - tasks that would take human professionals days of work.
Despite the cooperation between Anthropic and US agencies, tensions between the California-based company and the Trump administration have been growing. Earlier this month, the administration issued a directive requiring Anthropic to prevent foreign nationals from using its latest models, known as Fable 5 and Mythos 5. Anthropic released Fable widely this month — a limited version of the more advanced Mythos, to which the company has tightly restricted access due to cybersecurity concerns. The directive came 10 days after President Donald Trump signed an executive order establishing a framework for the federal government to vet national security risks posed by the most advanced AI systems for up to a month before their public release. Participation by AI developers would be voluntary, the order said. Anthropic said it disabled the models for all customers to comply with the directive, but added it did not believe the government's steps were warranted by the security concern it had flagged. More than 100 cybersecurity experts and leaders from companies including Adobe and Nvidia have written to the government urging it to lift the directive, warning the move could benefit US adversaries more than it harms them. In their letter, the signatories said Anthropic's Mythos models are 'quite good' at finding software flaws and weaponising exploits — but 'not uniquely good at these tasks.' Many said they regularly use other foundation and open-source models for security audits and training, and warned it was dangerous to remove the best cyber defence capabilities 'without a good reason' at a time when America's adversaries are rapidly advancing.
