Take all pre-emptive measures to secure IT systems, data: FM to Banks

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Electronics and IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Thursday chaired a high-level meeting with Scheduled Commercial Banks to assess the potential impact of emerging threats linked to recent developments in Artificial Intelligence models. It includes particularly the possibility of such technologies being misused to weaponise software vulnerabilities. 
During the meeting, the Union Finance Minister noted that the nature of the emerging threat from the latest AI Model is unprecedented. She highlighted the requirement of a very high degree of vigilance, preparedness and better coordination across financial institutions and banks. Ms Sitharaman advised the Indian Banks’ Association to develop a coordinated institutional mechanism to respond swiftly and effectively to any such threats. She also directed banks to engage the best available cybersecurity professionals and specialised agencies to continuously strengthen defensive and monitoring capabilities of the banks.
Banks were further advised to immediately report any suspicious activity or cyber incident to the relevant authorities, including the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In), and to maintain close coordination with all concerned agencies. Emphasising the need for proactive action, she urged banks to take all necessary pre-emptive measures to secure their IT systems, safeguard customer data, and protect monetary resources. The Finance Minister also advised that a robust mechanism for real-time threat intelligence sharing may be established among banks, CERT-In and other relevant agencies so that emerging threats are identified early and disseminated across the ecosystem without delay.
Sitharaman warned stakeholders of the potential impact of Claude Mythos. The FM  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.” Claude Mythos is Anthropic’s most powerful AI model. As per reports, an unauthorised group of users were able to get access to Mythos, something that could allow them to exploit cybersecurity flaws.  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.