Mercor, an AI recruiting firm, has confirmed it was affected by a cyberattack linked to the compromise of the open-source project LiteLLM. The hacking group Lapsus$ claimed responsibility for targeting Mercor and gaining access to its data.

Founded in 2023, Mercor works with major players like OpenAI and Anthropic to train AI models using domain experts from around the world. With a valuation of $10 billion following a recent fundraising round, Mercor's security incident is likely to raise concerns about the vulnerability of large tech firms.

Mercor spokesperson Heidi Hagberg said the company was conducting a thorough investigation and would communicate with customers as needed. 'We are moving promptly to contain and remediate the security incident,' she stated.

The incident highlights the risks associated with open-source projects, which can be targets for hackers looking to exploit vulnerabilities in widely used software. The compromise of LiteLLM originally surfaced last week after malicious code was found in a package linked to the project.