Anthropic’s expanded Cyber Verification Program (CVP) gives vetted security professionals access to Claude Opus 5.5, Sonnet 5.5, Mythos 5.1 and future models under three tiers: Defense Access, Red Team Access and Specialized Access. It is not open access for everyone who works in cybersecurity: eligibility depends on the applicant’s work, verification and security controls.
What Anthropic changed
Announced October 6, 2026, the expanded CVP brings together trusted-access work previously split between CVP and Project Glasswing. It offers advanced cyber capabilities with fewer blocking classifiers to qualified applicants, while retaining safeguards for high-risk activity. Anthropic describes the core difficulty this way: “Cybersecurity is inherently dual use: the same capabilities that enable a security team to find and fix a vulnerability can also help a malicious actor exploit it.”
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
The program names Claude Opus 5.5, Claude Sonnet 5.5 and Claude Mythos 5.1, as well as future models. Access to a model does not mean unrestricted use: the permitted work depends on the tier and its review.
Windows Errors? Fix Them Before They Spread
Repair common Windows errors and clear accumulated junk for a smoother, more stable PC - no reinstall needed.Free scan · no reinstallCrashes, No Sound, or Screen Glitches?
Random freezes, missing sound and display glitches usually trace back to one bad driver. Find and replace yours safely.Free scan · under a minuteHow the three access tiers differ
| Tier | Permitted work | Who can apply | Blocking and review |
|---|---|---|---|
| Defense Access | SOC and incident-response work, malware reverse engineering, and vulnerability analysis and validation. | Security teams at companies, nonprofits, universities and government bodies; critical-infrastructure operators; smaller security firms; open-source maintainers; and researchers with a vulnerability-reporting track record. Independent researchers, maintainers and bug bounty hunters may apply individually for this tier. | Reduced blocking for qualifying defensive work. Anthropic verifies the applicant and the relevant security controls. |
| Red Team Access | Authorized penetration testing and red teaming against systems the applicant is authorized to assess. | Organizations only; individual researchers are not currently eligible for this tier. | Fewer cyber blocks than Defense Access, but real-time blocks remain for actions that could cause physical harm or mass disruption. Anthropic says reviews may take a few weeks. |
| Specialized Access | Authorized testing involving systems with potential life-safety or market-disruption consequences, such as flight systems, power grids, telecom networks, interbank infrastructure and government administrative networks. | A limited set of verified organizations. | Fewest cyber blocks, with in-depth review conducted in collaboration with the US government. Existing Project Glasswing members move to this tier without reapproval for current models. |
The degree of access is tied to the risk of the work, not simply to an applicant’s job title. Anthropic says even Red Team and Specialized users remain blocked from activities such as ransomware deployment, damage to physical systems and testing high-risk safety systems.
#1 Best Overall
How to apply and what review involves
Applications go through Anthropic’s Verification Portal. Organizations submit one application, and Anthropic assigns the highest tier supported by the information provided. The Help Center asks applicants to provide organization and applicant details, describe their security work and attest to the relevant controls.
- Open Anthropic’s Verification Portal and submit the organization’s application. (Use the portal linked from the CVP Help Center; Anthropic’s published materials do not state a standalone portal URL here.)
- Describe the work the team will perform, identify the applicant and organization, and attest to the security controls relevant to that work.
- Wait for a decision or a request for more information. The Help Center says it aims to respond within seven business days; this is a target, not a guarantee.
Anthropic’s announcement separately says it expects many Defense Access applications to qualify and aims to respond to them within a few days, while Red Team Access reviews may take a few weeks. These are expectations, not guaranteed turnaround times. For individuals, the Help Center says independent researchers, maintainers and bug bounty hunters can currently apply only for Defense Access; Red Team Access is for organizations.
Existing CVP organizations do not need to reapply to join the updated program and are automatically evaluated for access to the named models, according to the Help Center. They keep their current model settings unless and until access changes. Existing Glasswing and CVP organizations are likewise not required to submit a new application to enter the updated program.
Supported platforms and data-retention conditions
CVP is available through the Claude Platform, Google Cloud Vertex AI and Microsoft Foundry. Amazon Bedrock is limited to customers eligible for Enterprise Frontier Safeguards (EFS). Anthropic says Bedrock does not yet support human review of automated safety flags, which CVP requires by default, and says it is working to expand availability.
Data retention for misuse monitoring is required by default. Anthropic describes EFS as a planned option, expected later in fall 2026, that would combine zero data retention with safeguards for eligible organizations. It also describes conditional zero-retention use for organizations with applicable Fable 5.1 or Mythos 5.1 access. These are forward-looking conditions, not a general promise of zero retention for all CVP users; check Anthropic’s current terms before choosing a deployment route.
What access to Mythos 5.1 means
Anthropic says Mythos 5.1 is available to vetted cyberdefenders and life scientists through trusted-access programs. Its general-purpose Claude models remain usable for routine defensive tasks such as code review, patching known issues, finding vulnerabilities in source code a user owns and triaging security alerts. More sensitive work, including malware analysis or exploit validation, may be interrupted by classifiers on generally available models; higher-capability cyber use requires trusted access.
Anthropic lists Mythos 5.1 pricing starting at $10 per million input tokens and $50 per million output tokens. Those are the company’s listed model prices, not a complete deployment-cost estimate or a quote guaranteed for every access channel.
Anthropic’s reported security results—and their limits
Anthropic says Project Glasswing partners reported at least 129,000 verified software vulnerabilities between April and July 2026. Its own open-source scanning efforts identified 5,500 verified vulnerabilities between April and October 2026. The company also reported more than 33,000 vulnerabilities rated critical or high, a figure it says is likely an undercount because it draws on survey data from only some Glasswing partners.
Best Value
These totals are company-reported lower bounds, based on partial data from 33 partner reports and open-source partnerships. Partners used different triage approaches, and fewer than half disclosed how many vulnerabilities had been patched. Anthropic says the true total could be at least five times higher; that is the company’s expectation, not an observed count.
Anthropic also reported a company-run evaluation of Claude Opus 5.5 on CyScenarioBench, which measures multi-stage cyber operations under realistic constraints. In that evaluation, Defense Access blocked 46 of 50 trials at some point. Without CVP, all tasks were blocked on the first prompt. Red Team Access had no blocks and completed 34 of 50 tasks, the same success rate Anthropic reports for its no-safeguards comparison (67.6%). These are results from Anthropic’s stated test, not general real-world safety rates or a guarantee of how the program will handle other tasks.
Frequently Asked Questions
How can I apply for access to Mythos 5.1?
Apply through Anthropic’s Verification Portal as part of the Cyber Verification Program. Provide your organization and applicant details, describe the security work and attest to the relevant controls. Individual researchers, maintainers and bug bounty hunters can currently apply only for Defense Access; Red Team Access is limited to organizations.
The Tool Desk
Outbyte PC Repair FREEClear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsFree Scan →Outbyte Driver Updater FREEScan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteDriver Scan →Can an individual researcher get Red Team Access?
No. Anthropic’s current Help Center says individual applicants may apply for Defense Access, while Red Team Access is currently for organizations.
Quick Recap
Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on Amazon at the time of purchase will apply.
