Anthropic launches $15M cyber defense program for state, local, tribal and territorial governments
Anthropic launches $15M cyber defense program for state, local, tribal and territorial governments
Publish Date: 2026-06-12 12:43:00
Source Domain: statescoop.com
Anthropic announced the launch on Thursday of a $15 million cyber defense program aimed at helping state, local, tribal and territorial governments close funding gaps and protect vulnerable assets.
The artificial intelligence giant is committing up to $15 million in total Claude credits across the program, which are the cost per usage units Anthropic assigns to its AI services. The company said that smaller state, local, tribal and territorial governments can apply for up to $100,000 in credits, while additional program slots may be made available for large local government entities that include special districts supporting critical infrastructure like power, water, transit and port authorities.
These credits can be used to find and fix vulnerabilities using Anthropic’s publicly available models, like Claude Opus 4.8, Claude Security and Claude Code, as well as some of the company’s cyber defense runbooks and Claude “skills” — Anthropic’s term for workflow templates.
Participating governments can also receive hands-on support alongside other SLTT government tech leaders in a cohort, and weekly training and support from technical experts on Anthropic’s applied AI team. The company also noted that this program is distinct from Project Glasswing, the company’s restricted-access defensive cybersecurity initiative that allows select researchers to get their hands on the powerful Mythos model via Claude Mythos Preview.
The program comes at a time when states and local governments are struggling to close gaps left by cancelled federal funding and programs under the Trump administration, such as the State and Local Cybersecurity Grant Program, as well as the Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center.
But state and local governments have already had significant cyber wins with Claude, the company said, claiming that one state’s security team recently found more than 40 vulnerabilities in its systems using Anthropic’s…
