Cybersecurity Alert: Nirmala Sitharaman Directs Banks to Strengthen IT Defences Against AI Exploits

The Finance Minister advised the Indian Banks' Association to develop a collaborative mechanism to respond to such threats quickly and effectively. He also directed banks to engage the best available cybersecurity professionals and specialized agencies to continuously strengthen their defense and monitoring capabilities.

Banks were further advised to immediately report any suspicious activity or cyber incident to the relevant authorities and maintain close coordination with all relevant agencies, including the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team.

The Union Finance Minister emphasized the need for proactive action. He urged banks to take all necessary steps to secure their IT systems, protect customer data, and safeguard financial resources. A robust mechanism can be created to share real-time threat information between banks, the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team, and other relevant agencies, so that emerging threats can be identified in a timely manner and shared across the system without delay.

The meeting was attended by M Nagaraju, Secretary, Department of Financial Services, Sanjay Bahl, senior officials from the Reserve Bank of India and NPCI, and managing directors and CEOs of scheduled commercial banks. According to a report by Kotak Institutional Equities, AI models like Anthropic's 'Mythos' could pose a risk of disruption to the growth of India's IT services sector.