--- title: Attacker stole a METR API key, used $600K worth of... description: An attacker stole an API key belonging to METR, an AI safety research organization, and used it to rack up roughly $600,000 worth of model credits over several... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/attacker-stole-a-metr-api-key-used-600k-worth-of-credits-and-no-one-noticed-for-weeks-7yp3poti7 twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Attacker stole a METR API key, used $600K worth of credits, and no one noticed for weeks | daily.dev og:description: An attacker stole an API key belonging to METR, an AI safety research organization, and used it to rack up roughly $600,000 worth of model credits over several... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/attacker-stole-a-metr-api-key-used-600k-worth-of-credits-and-no-one-noticed-for-weeks-7yp3poti7 og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/7Yp3potI7.png og:image:alt: Attacker stole a METR API key, used $600K worth of credits, and no one noticed for weeks og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Attacker stole a METR API key, used $600K worth of credits, and no one noticed for weeks **[The Register](https://daily.dev/sources/theregister)** · 3 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary An attacker stole an API key belonging to METR, an AI safety research organization, and used it to rack up roughly $600,000 worth of model credits over several weeks without detection. The credits were provided to METR for free by a model provider, meaning no financial charge alerted anyone; a paying customer would have faced real costs. The incident highlights weak API key monitoring and credential hygiene even among organizations focused on AI safety. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: --- Tags: [#ai](https://daily.dev/tags/ai) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/attacker-stole-a-metr-api-key-used-600k-worth-of-credits-and-no-one-noticed-for-weeks-7yp3poti7) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Attacker stole a METR API key, used $600K worth of credits, and no one noticed for weeks","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/attacker-stole-a-metr-api-key-used-600k-worth-of-credits-and-no-one-noticed-for-weeks-7yp3poti7","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/attacker-stole-a-metr-api-key-used-600k-worth-of-credits-and-no-one-noticed-for-weeks-7yp3poti7"},"datePublished":"2026-09-01T20:48:18.095Z","dateModified":"2026-09-02T20:54:44.219Z","description":"An attacker stole an API key belonging to METR, an AI safety research organization, and used it to rack up roughly $600,000 worth of model credits over several...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/63f00c3eaefd2f0c031800420af76f4f?_a=AQAEuop","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/63f00c3eaefd2f0c031800420af76f4f?_a=AQAEuop","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"The Register","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"The Register","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/t_logo,f_auto/v1/logos/66aa2113fdad463992ffcbf0e8963fda","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/theregister"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/attacker-stole-a-metr-api-key-used-600k-worth-of-credits-and-no-one-noticed-for-weeks-7yp3poti7","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":0},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"ai","timeRequired":"PT3M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Register","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/theregister"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Attacker stole a METR API key, used $600K worth of credits, and no one noticed for weeks"}]} ```