NEAR AI Pauses Cloud Inference After Finding Unauthorized System Access

NEAR AI has shut off unauthorized access it found in an internal system and is keeping cloud inference suspended as it investigates. The company said NEAR Protocol and its other services were unaffected.

NEAR AI initially paused cloud inference as a precaution while it examined the access. It later said the access had been closed, but the service would stay suspended until it could be safely restored. The investigation is continuing, and the company planned to provide another update within two hours. Its two-hour update commitment concerns the investigation; service restoration remains tied to a safety determination.

NEAR AI said its cloud inference service runs inside hardware-isolated trusted execution environments (TEEs) to protect user prompts. The service pause is limited to cloud inference, while the company said NEAR Protocol and its other services were not affected. The company did not give a timetable for restoring cloud inference.