Japan's Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki announced on Friday that the country will form a special task force to address cyber security risks within the financial system, amid growing concerns over potential vulnerabilities in Anthropic's Mythos artificial intelligence model.
Minister Suzuki stated that the decision was reached during a joint meeting involving Japan's Financial Services Agency, the Bank of Japan, the National Center of Incident Readiness and Strategy for Cybersecurity, the country's three major banks, and the Japanese Foreign Exchange Group.
"I pointed out during the meeting that this crisis is imminent, and the financial industry has expressed similar concerns," she said.
Anthropic reported that a preview version of Mythos identified "thousands" of critical vulnerabilities across all major operating systems and web browsers, heightening concerns and raising questions about the security resilience of traditional software.
Experts warn that the model can identify and exploit previously unknown vulnerabilities faster than companies can patch them, potentially accelerating cyber attacks on industries such as banking, which rely on complex, interconnected, and often decades-old technology.
Regulatory bodies in Asia, Europe, and the United States have already advised banks to review their defenses and preparedness. So far, no security breaches related to the model have been reported.
Minister Suzuki emphasized that the high interconnectivity and real-time operation of the financial system mean that problems could spread more rapidly than in other sectors. "For this reason," she noted, "a cyber attack could immediately trigger market disruption and undermine market confidence."
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