Japan Eyes Financial System Shutdown in Mythos Attack

Tokyo, May 20 (Jiji Press)–A Japanese public-private working group is considering actively shutting down financial systems as an option to deal with possible cyberattacks that utilize Claude Mythos, an artificial intelligence model developed by U.S. startup Anthropic, it was learned Wednesday. The system shutdown was proposed as a draft quick response measure at the day’s meeting of the group, launched under the public-private coordination framework set up by the Financial Services Agency. The members, including representatives from major commercial banks, the Finance Ministry, the Bank of Japan and Anthropic’s Japanese unit, assume a case in which the AI model is used in a cyberattack and identifies system vulnerabilities far beyond the target financial institution’s capacity for patching. The group is expected to draw up short-term response measures by the end of this month. Meanwhile, the government and the three domestic megabanks–MUFG Bank, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp. and Mizuho Bank–are working to gain access to Mythos, which is limited to a handful of companies and groups. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]