European Central Bank board member Frank Elderson has urged euro area banks to strengthen their defences against cyberattacks that could be carried out with the help of advanced artificial intelligence tools.
Elderson, who is also Vice-Chair of the ECB’s Supervisory Board, said in an interview with the ECB’s Supervision Newsletter that banks should not wait for direct access to Anthropic’s Claude Mythos Preview before taking action.
“Lack of access is not an excuse for inaction,” he said. “On the contrary, it makes it even more critical that banks step up and act now.”
The warning follows Reuters reports that major US banks with early access to Mythos are moving quickly to fix weaknesses in their data and technology systems identified by the tool.
Elderson described Mythos as a “game-changer in cybersecurity”, saying it can autonomously identify and exploit vulnerabilities at a speed and scale beyond existing tools. He said the model can also combine seemingly minor weaknesses into serious attacks and reverse-engineer software patches into exploitable vulnerabilities far faster than before. He said such tools can help improve IT security when used responsibly, but warned that they could also be exploited by malicious actors. Banks, he added, must be ready not only for Mythos but also for more powerful models that could be released in quick succession.
The ECB official said euro area banks should use existing AI tools to identify vulnerabilities and change how they approach software patching. Weaknesses previously considered minor, and often dealt with through longer upgrade cycles, should now be treated as urgent. Elderson also warned that the risk is not limited to banks’ own systems. Critical infrastructure and external service providers used by banks could also be targeted, creating knock-on effects for the financial sector.
ECB President Christine Lagarde said earlier this month that the central bank was studying defences against attacks powered by Mythos, while noting that Europe was at a disadvantage because it does not currently have access to the model. Reuters also reported that Japan’s three largest banks are expected to gain access to Mythos within about two weeks, a development that could widen the gap between institutions with access to the tool and those still preparing without it.
Source: CNA
