Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman raises alarm on bank security risk due to Anthropic Mythos AI

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman held a high-level meeting with heads of banks on Thursday to discuss the potential risks with Anthropic's Claude Mythos, an AI so powerful that it can potentially hack any system. Sitharaman has advised for the creation of mechanisms that can identify and act on any cyberattacks on the financial sector.

In Short

• FM Nirmala Sitharaman holds meeting with bank heads on Claude Mythos
• Nirmala Sitharaman says banks need to build a mechanism to identify cyberattacks
• Claude Mythos is claimed to be the most powerful AI model

On Thursday, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman convened a high-level security meeting with heads of various banks to understand the potential cybersecurity risks associated with Anthropic’s Claude Mythos model. Claude Mythos is claimed to be the most advanced AI model when it comes to cybersecurity.

On X, the official account of the Ministry of Finance stated that Nirmala Sitharaman warned stakeholders of the potential impact of Claude Mythos. The post stated that the threat from Mythos was “unprecedented and requires a very high degree of vigilance, preparedness and better coordination across financial institutions and banks.”

IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw was also present at the meeting.

What is Claude Mythos? And why are people alarmed?

Claude Mythos is Anthropic’s most powerful AI model. According to the AI startup, the model is so good at cybersecurity that it cannot be released to the general public. The company says that Mythos has managed to find thousands of cybersecurity flaws that were missed by humans. This includes 27-year-old vulnerabilities in major operating systems and web browsers.

Anthropic has said making it widely available would be like handing advanced hacking capabilities to anyone with a laptop. This means, at least on paper, that Mythos may be able to exploit security flaws that we never knew existed.

As a result, Anthropic has given access to Claude Mythos to only a select group of around 40 companies, including Amazon, Microsoft and Google. However, as per reports, an unauthorised group of users were able to get access to Mythos, something that could allow them to exploit cybersecurity flaws.

The Indian government is not the only one that is keeping an eye on Mythos. Reports have indicated that the US government has held talks with various Wall Street banks to take similar measures. The White House is likely also planning to use Mythos across its agencies to bolster cybersecurity.

What is India planning to do?

In theory, Mythos is believed to be so powerful that a bad actor could use it to potentially hack any organisation or banking system. But to tackle this potential threat, the finance ministry is planning to build a framework that will identify and act against any such attempts.

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

The finance ministry added, “It was advised that a robust mechanism for real-time threat intelligence sharing may be established among banks, @IndianCERT and other relevant agencies.” This mechanism will be used to identify threats and share the details across the entire banking ecosystem in India.

Nirmala Sitharaman has advised the Indian Banks’ Association (IBA) to develop a coordinated institutional mechanism. This will be asked to respond swiftly to tackle any potential threats. Sitharaman told banks to work with cybersecurity experts and agencies to strengthen their defenses against any potential cyber attacks.

As per a report from The Hindu, the finance ministry and the Reserve Bank of India are said to be studying the extent of risks that the Indian financial sector faces from Mythos.

- Ends