Who gets Claude’s advanced cyber capabilities?

Transcript

The original narration, preserved as published. Relative dates refer to the episode’s coverage window.

Anthropic expanded its Cyber Verification Program on October sixth. Qualifying security professionals can apply for advanced cyber capabilities with fewer blocks. Access is now split into three tiers, each with different requirements.

Defense Access covers work like incident response and vulnerability analysis. Red Team Access adds authorized penetration testing. Specialized Access is reserved for deeply verified organizations working on critical safety systems.

The distinction is who is doing the work, on which systems, and with what authorization. Red Team Access currently requires an organization. Individual researchers can qualify for Defense Access when they meet the criteria. High-risk actions can still be blocked.

Anthropic says a future safeguards offering will let eligible teams store data in infrastructure they control. That’s planned for later this fall.

Applications are open, but approval isn’t automatic. General Claude access still supports owned-code review, patching, and alert triage. The broader change is a more specific route for security teams to get the capability their work requires.