By Eduardo Baptista
BEIJING, June 24 (Reuters) – Chinese cybersecurity firm 360 Security Technology has developed what it calls a domestic answer to Anthropic’s Mythos, it said on Wednesday, casting the U.S. model as a strategic cyber capability that China could not afford to lack.
Mythos, previewed in April, is a system that detects software vulnerabilities, but cybersecurity experts have warned that it could supercharge cyberattacks. The U.S. this month ordered Anthropic to suspend exports of a less powerful version of the programme, citing national security concerns.
Speaking at the ISC.AI 2026 cybersecurity conference in Beijing, 360 founder Zhou Hongyi unveiled two AI security tools under the banner “Yitian Tulong”, a name drawn from a classic Chinese martial arts novel meaning “Heavenly Sword and Dragon Saber”.
Zhou said one tool, “Tulongfeng”, was designed to automatically discover software vulnerabilities, calling it “China’s version of Mythos”, while a second system, “Yitianzhen”, was built to automate cyber defence and incident response.
“This kind of powerful weapon that can change the landscape of cyber offence and defence cannot be held only by others,” Zhou said in a speech, according to a transcript published by 360.
He described vulnerability-finding AI as a national strategic asset that could be used both to defend critical infrastructure and to gain offensive advantage.
CYBERATTACKS
China and the U.S. have a long history of accusing each other of conducting offensive cyber operations on critical infrastructure.
360’s release marks the most high-profile Chinese answer yet to Anthropic’s Mythos model, which has triggered alarm in Washington and other capitals, as well as across the cybersecurity industry, over its ability to discover vulnerabilities in sensitive systems.
Anthropic said in April that Mythos Preview had found “thousands” of major vulnerabilities in operating systems, web browsers and other software.
The U.S. government has ordered the company to suspend exports of a less powerful version of Mythos to destinations worldwide and all foreign nationals due to national security concerns.
Zhou argued that China faced a risk of “one-way transparency” if U.S. entities could use Mythos-like models to scan software and critical systems while Chinese companies were denied comparable capabilities.
His remarks reflect widespread unease in China at what the country’s state media has called the “unprecedented cyberattack capabilities” displayed by Mythos. Zhou is a member of China’s top political advisory body.
360 said Tulongfeng had found 3,432 software vulnerabilities, including 105 confirmed by Chinese authorities. Reuters could not independently verify the claims.
Zhou said 360 would not simply copy the U.S. approach, which he described as relying on “the strongest model, the strongest computing power and the strongest chips”.
U.S. EXPORT CONTROLS
Tightening U.S. export controls on China’s access to cutting-edge U.S. chips since 2022 have prevented domestic models from catching up to American rivals including Anthropic, though the gap has narrowed since last year.
The U.S. has justified these restrictions by arguing these chips would allow the Chinese military to turbocharge its capabilities with AI.
“Objectively speaking, domestic models still have a 20%-30% gap in base capability,” Zhou said. “China cannot wait until model capabilities have fully caught up before starting vulnerability discovery, because we cannot afford to wait.”
Instead, Zhou said his company was taking an “agent” route, combining models with security expertise, vulnerability databases and automated tools, an approach he claimed only 360 had successfully deployed, giving Tulongfeng “Mythos-equivalent capabilities”.
“If Mythos is a top-end chip, what we are building is a complete machine that can run stably, work 24 hours a day and make fewer mistakes,” he said. “If the U.S. route is to cultivate a genius hacker, 360’s route is to organise a professional attack-and-defence team.”
Last year, Anthropic said that hackers exploited vulnerabilities in its Claude AI to attack around 30 global organizations. Moreover, 67% of the 1,000 executives surveyed in an IBM and Palo Alto Networks study said they had been targeted by AI attacks within the past year.
Zhou, a veteran Chinese internet entrepreneur and outspoken technology commentator, founded 360, which became one of China’s best-known cybersecurity companies through antivirus software and later expanded into enterprise and government security.
(Reporting by Eduardo Baptista; Editing by Jan Harvey)
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