Sitharaman warns AI cyber threat
- India finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman told bank chiefs in Washington to strengthen cyber defences against artificial-intelligence attacks, after citing a new “Mythos” threat she said could outpace traditional security responses. - Sitharaman directed the Indian Banks’ Association and State Bank of India to work with regulators, specialist agencies and real-time reporting channels, framing AI-led attacks as faster and harder to contain. - The warning landed as IMF-World Bank spring meetings in Washington put financial stability on the agenda from April 13 to 18. (worldbank.org)
India’s finance minister, Nirmala Sitharaman, told Indian banks to harden cyber defences against artificial-intelligence attacks during the International Monetary Fund and World Bank spring meetings in Washington. (outlookbusiness.com) (worldbank.org) Outlook Business reported that Sitharaman warned of “Mythos,” which it described as an advanced AI-linked cyber threat tied to Anthropic’s Claude family, and said such attacks could move beyond “human-scale” response. (outlookbusiness.com) She directed the Indian Banks’ Association and State Bank of India to strengthen protections, improve reporting protocols and work with regulators and specialist cyber agencies, according to reports on April 24 and April 25. (outlookbusiness.com) (devdiscourse.com) The warning came as the 2026 spring meetings ran in Washington from April 13 to April 18, bringing finance ministers, central bankers and regulators together around financial stability and global economic risks. (imf.org) (worldbank.org) India has been elevating cyber risk in finance for months. A Press Information Bureau note said reported cybersecurity incidents rose from 10.29 lakh in 2022 to 22.68 lakh in 2024. (pib.gov.in) The government and industry also launched a Digital Threat Report 2024 for banking, financial services and insurance in March, with CERT-In, CSIRT-Fin and SISA mapping sector-wide gaps and emerging attack patterns. (pib.gov.in 1) (pib.gov.in 2) India’s payments system already uses machine-learning defences in some places. A government reply in Parliament said the National Payments Corporation of India provides fraud-monitoring tools to banks using AI and machine-learning models. (pib.gov.in) Sitharaman’s message in Washington was that the same technology banks use to detect fraud can also be used by attackers to scale phishing, malware and intrusion attempts faster than legacy controls were built to handle. (devdiscourse.com) (outlookbusiness.com) Her immediate ask was not a new law or a budget number. It was faster coordination between banks, regulators and cyber specialists before an AI-led breach tests the system in real time. (devdiscourse.com) (outlookbusiness.com)
