After SaaS shock, new Anthropic Cloud AI update crashes cybersecurity stocks
Anthropic on Friday announced Cloud Code Security, bringing cybersecurity features to its AI models. This resulted in a decline in the shares of major cybersecurity players like CrowdStrike and Cloudflare. This comes just weeks after Cloud Cowork’s SaaS scare.
Anthropic is making waves in the stock market again. After troubling SaaS players like Infosys and TCS with Cloud Cowork, the AI startup has now announced Cloud Code Security. This update brings cybersecurity functionality to the cloud, and it looks like traditional cybersecurity companies are already being impressed.
According to Anthropic, Cloud Code Security is an AI-powered tool designed to help identify and fix software vulnerabilities. And in theory, it could allow users to replace cybersecurity firms with such tools, though it’s still in a limited research preview.
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Cyber security stocks fall
Following the release of Cloud Code Security, shares of major cybersecurity firms experienced a sharp decline. CrowdStrike Holdings declined 6.5 percent, Cloudflare declined more than 6 percent, Zscaler declined 3.5 percent, SailPoint declined 6.8 percent and Okta declined 5.7 percent.
The Global
The iShares Expanded Tech-Software Sector ETF is down more than 23 percent this year, its biggest quarterly decline since the 2008 financial crisis. Much of this sales has been driven by new AI tools from companies like Anthropic, OpenAI and Alphabet Inc.
What does cloud code security do?
Anthropic describes the new feature as one that “scans the codebase for security vulnerabilities and suggests targeted software patches for human review.” The timing of the release coincides with key compliance cycles for enterprises, highlighting how AI tools can disrupt established security workflows.
Unlike traditional cybersecurity tools, which typically flag vulnerabilities for later human review, Anthropic’s solution works differently. Cloud Code Security provides its findings as well as suggested patches, compressing the entire vulnerability lifecycle – from discovery to remediation – into a single workflow.
Why could cloud code security be a game changer?
Traditionally human engineers would still be needed to resolve any threats or bugs. But the cloud itself can now suggest possible solutions. This will not only save companies time but also huge costs as they will not need to avail the services of cyber security firms like CrowdStrike in the future.
However, the final decision will still be made by a human being. “Nothing is implemented without human approval: Cloud Code Security identifies problems and suggests solutions, but developers are always on call,” says Anthropic.
Using Cloud Opus 4.6, Anthropic’s team recently discovered over 500 vulnerabilities in the open-source codebase, many of which were unknown for years.
Cloud code can replace an entire engineering team
Cloud code security adds another layer to AI functionality that now covers almost all aspects required to run an app – this includes design, code review, and cybersecurity checks. According to one user on X, the cloud was now able to be “a full engineering team that never sleeps, never argues about tabs vs. spaces, and it costs $20/month.”
At a time when companies have already laid off more than 1 lakh employees in the IT sector, this could pave the way for more layoffs in various companies.
