Australia’s financial oversight agency has issued an emergency call for banks and investment companies to immediately bolster their cybersecurity measures against emerging artificial intelligence threats.
On Friday, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission distributed a formal notice to financial services companies, emphasizing the need for enhanced security protocols to defend against advanced AI systems like Mythos.
ASIC Commissioner Simone Constant warned that the financial industry has entered uncharted territory regarding cyber threats. “Cyber risk has entered a new era, the advent of frontier AI models creates opportunity but also materially increases risk, with the ability to expose vulnerabilities faster than many realise,” Constant stated.
The commissioner stressed that companies cannot afford to delay action while waiting for more information. “Do not wait for perfect clarity to address the threat posed by new AI models. Instead, act now, and act with discipline, to strengthen the cyber resilience fundamentals that underpin your business,” she said.
Security specialists have raised alarms about Mythos due to its advanced programming capabilities, which could give it extraordinary power to discover cybersecurity weaknesses in financial systems.
Anthropic, the company behind Mythos, has not yet provided a response to ASIC’s warning letter.
This latest alert comes after Australia’s banking oversight authority warned last month that the domestic financial sector’s information security measures were falling behind the rapid advancement of artificial intelligence technology.
Constant emphasized the critical timing of the situation, stating: “The clock is at a minute to midnight – if you aren’t on top of your cyber resilience already, the time to act and prepare is right now.”
Anthropic has made Claude Mythos Preview available through Project Glasswing, a highly restricted testing program that includes major technology companies like Amazon, Microsoft, Nvidia and Apple.
Recent research has highlighted concerns about financial regulators’ ability to keep pace with AI-related risks. A survey revealed that regulatory agencies are significantly behind financial companies in adopting AI technologies and lack sufficient information about emerging threats.
According to April research from the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance, financial institutions are implementing AI systems more than twice as quickly as their regulatory supervisors, with only 20% of regulators reporting advanced AI implementation.
