Using Claude? This feature could put your bank account at risk

Anthropic launched Personal Finance in Claude, a tool for connecting bank accounts to the chatbot for automatic budget management. Security experts warn that concentrating payment history with sensitive personal information makes the account a target for extortion and identity theft, despite the read-only setting.

Anthropic launched over the weekend Personal Finance in Claude, a new tool that allows connecting bank accounts and credit cards directly to the Claude chatbot. The service enables expense tracking, automatic budget calculation, and identification of financial pitfalls such as duplicate charges and hidden fees, without advertisements. However, security and privacy experts warn that concentrating two years of payment history together with sensitive personal information entered into the chatbot makes the account an attractive target for extortion and identity theft. Although the connection is set to read-only and does not allow moving funds, an attacker who gains access could ask the model questions like 'What is the user's net worth?' and receive an immediate answer. The article emphasizes the need for hardware-based two-factor authentication and ongoing control over permissions.