Anthropic Mythos risks force public banks in India to revamp IT investments: Report

India’s public sector banks (PSBs) are reportedly increasing their spending on technology and cybersecurity amid growing global concerns about the risks surrounding Anthropic’s Claude Mythos. According to a PTI report, the additional spending will likely focus on securing banking systems, protecting customer information, and preventing financial losses or cyber threats.

Anthropic’s Claude Mythos is a dedicated AI model to strengthen AI-powered cybersecurity. The model comes with the ability to identify vulnerabilities in the system and potentially suggest ways to exploit or attack those weaknesses. Due to these capabilities, there has been a global concern that such  AI tools could be misused to target or disrupt banking systems.

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Now, amid growing concerns, banks in India are planning to expand their spending on cybersecurity defences to strengthen their systems and reduce vulnerabilities. PTI quoted Punjab & Sind Bank MD and CEO Swarup Kumar Saha, saying, “In view of this new challenge, banks have to definitely increase their investments in IT to make their system more robust and reduce vulnerabilities about cyber attacks.”

It was further highlighted that efforts are directed by India’s Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, urging banks to urgently strengthen their cybersecurity systems and take necessary pre-emptive measures.

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Furthermore, the Indian government has created a special committee, led by SBI Chairman C S Setty, to study the risks associated with “Mythos” and suggest ways to reduce or manage those risks. During a high-level meeting, Sitharaman told banks to hold discussions in the coming weeks to better understand the possible cyber and security threats and assess where banks need to spend more money on technology advances. 

Regulators around the globe are worried about the emerging threat from Mythos misuse, which could become a serious cybersecurity threat to banks because many banking systems still rely on old technology. It is predicted that one successful cyberattack could have the ability to create a domino effect across India’s and even global financial networks because all these systems are interconnected. Therefore, if one goes down, the damage may quickly spread across the wider financial system.