Finance Minister urges bankers to brace for AI threats amid Anthropic concerns

NEW DELHI: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday convened a high-level meeting with heads of banks to assess emerging cybersecurity risks linked to advanced artificial intelligence models, amid global concerns over Anthropic’s Claude Mythos system and its potential implications for financial data security.

During the meeting, Sitharaman asked banks to take all necessary pre-emptive measures to secure their IT systems, safeguard customer data, and protect monetary resources.

“It was advised that a robust mechanism for real-time threat intelligence sharing may be established among banks, @IndianCERT and other relevant agencies so that emerging threats are identified early and disseminated across the ecosystem without delay,” the finance ministry said in a post on X.

Banks were further advised to immediately report any suspicious activity or cyber incident to the relevant authorities, including Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In), and to maintain close coordination with all agencies concerned, it said.

These recommendations were given during a high-level meeting chaired by the Finance Minister, along with the Minister for Electronics and Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw, with banks and key stakeholders to assess the potential impact of emerging threats linked to recent developments in AI models, particularly the possibility of such technologies being misused to weaponise software vulnerabilities. The meeting assumed significance in view of development of the Claude Mythos AI model by Anthropic, claiming that it has found vulnerabilities in many major operating systems.

The FM also urged the Indian Banks’ Association (IBA) to develop a coordinated institutional mechanism, and also engage the best available cybersecurity professionals and specialised agencies to continuously strengthen defensive and monitoring capabilities of banks. “The nature of the emerging threat from the latest AI Model is unprecedented and requires a very high degree of vigilance, preparedness and better coordination across financial institutions and banks,” she said.

According to a senior finance ministry official, the ministry and the RBI are studying the extent of risks that the Indian financial sector faces from this breach. “So far, Indian systems are secure and there is no need for unduly worrying,” the official said. “The RBI is also doing due-diligence at its end to ensure India’s financial sector is secure.”