Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday held a high-level meeting with the heads of public and private sector banks. During this meeting, the main topic of discussion was Anthropic’s ‘Cloud Mythos’ model and the potential cyber security risks associated with it. It is claimed that ‘Cloud Mythos’ is the most advanced AI model to date in terms of cyber security capabilities.
The official ‘X’ (formerly Twitter) account of the Finance Ministry said that Nirmala Sitharaman alerted all stakeholders about the possible impacts of the ‘cloud mythos’. The post also mentioned that ‘Mythos’ could pose several unprecedented risks, requiring extremely high levels of vigilance, readiness and better coordination between financial institutions and banks.
What is the ‘Cloud Mythos’?
This is the most powerful AI model ever created by a company called Anthropic. According to the company, this model is so capable in terms of cyber security that it has been kept away from the reach of the general public. The company claims that ‘Mythos’ specializes in detecting small flaws or vulnerabilities—particularly cybersecurity vulnerabilities—that exist within banking systems; Flaws that humans usually cannot catch.
In the 1990s, when the Internet and operating systems were being developed, there was not as much emphasis on security. As a result, those same vulnerabilities are now buried within legacy code—flaws that Mythos AI is able to uncover. It has the ability to perform deep-level diagnostics within older operating systems or web browsers. Anthropic has clarified that making this tool available to the general public would be tantamount to putting advanced hacking capabilities in the hands of any laptop-owner.
**What are the risks?**
For this reason, Anthropic has limited access to the ‘Cloud Mythos’ to only an exclusive group of about 40 select companies; This group includes giant companies like Amazon, Microsoft and Google. However, according to some reports, an unauthorized group of users has somehow managed to gain access to ‘Mythos’, which may give them the opportunity to abuse cybersecurity vulnerabilities.
In view of this situation, the government has advised banks to strengthen their security systems so much that if an attack occurs or any suspicious activity is detected, other banks can be immediately alerted. The Finance Minister has also expressed concern that this AI model can be used to steal money from banks or put customers’ personal information at risk.
The Government of India is not the only institution that is keeping a close eye on ‘Mythos’. According to reports, the US government has also urged various Wall Street banks to implement similar precautionary measures. …have had discussions with (them). The White House also plans to use ‘Mythos’ to strengthen cybersecurity across its various agencies.
