BT Joins Project Glasswing to Detect Network Vulnerabilities

BT has become the first UK company to join Anthropic’s Project Glasswing, a programme that provides critical infrastructure operators with access to advanced AI tools designed to identify vulnerabilities before exploitation occurs. 

The operator will use Claude Mythos Preview, Anthropic’s frontier AI model, to strengthen cyber defences across its networks and customer services.

According to BT, the company now blocks around four million cyber attacks across its networks every day. The volume could show the scale of malicious activity targeting digital infrastructure in the UK.

BT CEO Allison Kirkby announced the decision during the UK Government’s first AI Adoption Summit, where political and technology leaders gathered to discuss how AI can support economic growth and public services.

AI tools for infrastructure protection

Project Glasswing was created to bring together operators responsible for essential services and infrastructure. The initiative enables trusted organisations to use Anthropic’s AI systems to uncover security weaknesses and accelerate remediation efforts before attackers can take advantage.

BT’s participation aligns with its role as a provider of communications infrastructure and managed security services across the UK. The operator has spent years building faster and more resilient networks and now faces the task of defending those networks against evolving threats.

In her speech, which opened the summit, Allison highlighted the relationship between AI and telecommunications infrastructure. She argued that advanced digital services depend on secure and resilient connectivity.

She said that “AI only works at scale when it is underpinned by future-ready networks that are secure, resilient and safe”.

Allison reiterated BT’s commitment “to working with Government to support the further development and deployment of sovereign British AI capability, so that the UK can be an AI maker and not just a taker”.

Automated defence at machine speed

BT has already introduced AI-powered cybersecurity services for organisations of different sizes, including products aimed at small businesses. 

The company announced a collaboration with Accenture focused on developing advanced AI-driven cyber operations capable of responding to threats at machine speed.

As cyber criminals adopt AI tools of their own, telecommunications providers are under pressure to modernise security operations. The time it takes to identify and respond to threats must be reduced.

According to Jon James, CEO of BT Business, joining Anthropic’s initiative will help strengthen those capabilities. 

“AI is changing cyber security fast, and businesses need trusted partners who can help them stay one step ahead,” he said.

“By joining Project Glasswing, BT will strengthen its own cyber security capability to protect our networks, our customers and the wider UK.”

Security as a service offering

Operators are positioning themselves as not only providers of digital infrastructure and cloud connectivity, but also security services. Cyber resilience is becoming as important as network performance.

Allison emphasised BT’s role as an “enabler of responsible adoption and a responsible adopter ourselves” in AI. Governments are placing greater emphasis on protecting critical national infrastructure and ensuring that AI systems are deployed responsibly.

For telecommunications providers, one of the challenges is ensuring that the networks supporting AI-driven economies remain secure, resilient and trusted. 

By joining Project Glasswing, BT is placing itself closer to the development of emerging AI security tools.

The operator could strengthen the cyber protections that underpin its networks and services while gaining access to frontier AI models designed specifically for vulnerability detection and remediation.