After Anthropic warning, Sitharaman asks banks to brace for AI cyber threats

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday urged banks to step up cybersecurity measures and improve coordination to counter emerging risks from advanced artificial intelligence (AI) systems that could be used to exploit software vulnerabilities.

Sitharaman chaired a high-level meeting with stakeholders including lenders, regulators and government agencies, alongside IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, to assess potential threats from new-generation AI models, the finance ministry said in a post on social media platform X.

Senior officials from the Reserve Bank of India, the National Payments Corporation of India and the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team, as well as bank executives, attended the meeting.

During the meeting, Sitharaman acknowledged the progress made by banks in strengthening cybersecurity frameworks but warned that threats posed by the latest generation of AI models are “unprecedented” and demand heightened vigilance, preparedness and coordination across the financial ecosystem.

She asked the Indian Banks' Association (IBA) to develop a coordinated mechanism to respond swiftly to cyber risks.

She also directed banks to strengthen their defensive and monitoring capabilities by engaging top cybersecurity professionals and to promptly report suspicious incidents to authorities, including CERT-In.

The move comes amid growing global concern that powerful AI systems could be misused to identify and exploit software flaws at scale.

Mythos Preview alarms world

Earlier this month, AI firm Anthropic launched a cybersecurity initiative, Project Glasswing, with companies including Amazon Web Services, Apple, Microsoft, Google, NVIDIA and JPMorgan Chase, warning that new AI models can outperform most humans at discovering vulnerabilities.

Anthropic said internal testing of its unreleased system, Claude Mythos Preview, had already identified thousands of high-severity flaws across widely used software, including critical operating systems and web browsers.

Anthropic warned that such capabilities could soon spread beyond controlled environments, increasing risks to critical infrastructure and global security.

“Given the rate of AI progress, it will not be long before such capabilities proliferate,” the company said, adding that “the fallout—for economies, public safety, and national security—could be severe.”

The company said the model had uncovered vulnerabilities that had gone undetected for years, in some cases decades, despite extensive testing. Central bank governors, finance ministers and financiers have expressed serious concerns as the new model could undermine the security of financial systems.

Canadian Finance Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne said in an interview with the BBC that Mythos has been discussed extensively by his peers at the recent International Monetary Fund (IMF) meeting, and it is serious enough to warrant the attention of all finance ministers.

Sitharaman urged Indian banks to take pre-emptive steps to secure IT systems, protect customer data and safeguard financial assets.