IMF Warns AI Cyberattacks Could Trigger Systemic Shock to Global Financial System

IMF warns new AI models risk 'systemic' shock to finance

The latest AI models pose a risk of "correlated failures" that could affect the financial system on a "systemic" level, the IMF has said, urging policymakers to prepare to deal with an "inevitable" breach. The fund warned that the capabilities of new AI models "elevate cyber risk to a potential macro‑financial shock". The IMF's alert underlines how regulators are becoming increasingly alarmed at the potential for Anthropic's Claude Mythos and other AI models developed by US tech companies to threaten the world banking system by exposing weaknesses in lenders' cyber defences. "Advanced AI models can dramatically reduce the time and cost needed to identify and exploit vulnerabilities, raising the likelihood of simultaneously discovering and targeting weaknesses in widely used systems," senior IMF officials wrote in a blog post published on Thursday. "As a result, cyber risk is increasingly about correlated failures that could disrupt financial intermediation, payments and confidence at the systemic level," they said, adding that the recent controlled release of Mythos "underscored how quickly risks are increasing". Anthropic said last month Mythos had "found thousands of high-severity vulnerabilities, including some in every major operating system and web browser". It added: "The fallout -- for economies, public safety and national security -- could be severe." It plans to roll Mythos out gradually, following its release to a small group of 40 organisations that are mostly US-based, allowing them to fix the vulnerabilities it finds. This includes Amazon and Microsoft as well as large banks such as JPMorgan Chase. The limited release has enabled some companies to receive more "patches", technical fixes that close vulnerabilities found by Mythos. But many non-US banks and financial groups have been left without access to the new AI model, raising concerns about uneven levels of protection. Companies that have access to the San Francisco group's new tool told the FT recently that joint action "across the public and private sectors" was essential to support hospitals, banks and utilities vulnerable to the threats it uncovered. In the IMF's first publication about the increased cyber security threat from the latest AI models, it urged policymakers to improve international co-operation. "Cyber risk does not respect borders," it said, adding: "Emerging and developing countries, which often have more severe resource constraints, may be disproportionately exposed to attackers targeting regions with weaker defences." The IMF said: "Attacks become more dangerous when discovery and exploitation scale rapidly, with implications for financial stability." Raising doubts over whether the financial system could withstand a major cyber attack powered by the latest AI technology, the IMF said: "Confidence effects, payment disruptions, liquidity strains and fire‑sale dynamics could follow if multiple institutions are affected simultaneously." With many financial institutions using the same software and shared service providers, the blog said AI models could "create simultaneous vulnerabilities across many institutions". Financial software is "harder to target than open-source infrastructure", the IMF said. But it added that this mitigation was "likely to erode quickly as model training expands, capabilities diffuse and leaks occur". "Defences will inevitably be breached, so resilience must also be a priority, specifically to limit how far incidents spread and ensure rapid recovery," it said. Cyber stress testing, scenario analysis and board-level oversight of cyber risks are "indispensable" to defend the financial system, the IMF said, along with better public-private collaboration on threat intelligence and incident response.

IMF Warns AI Will Supercharge Cyberattacks on Global Financial System - Decrypt

The IMF urges policymakers to treat cybersecurity as a core financial stability issue, calling for stronger resilience standards, cross-border coordination, and AI-powered defenses to match AI-powered attacks. The International Monetary Fund warned Thursday that artificial intelligence is rapidly amplifying the threat of cyberattacks against the global financial system, potentially turning localized breaches into economy-rattling shocks that could shake markets, freeze payments, and erode confidence in banks worldwide. In a new blog post, IMF economists pointed to the controlled release by Anthropic of the advanced AI model Claude Mythos Preview as a stark illustration of the accelerating threat. The model was found capable of identifying and exploiting vulnerabilities across every major operating system and web browser -- even in the hands of non-experts. The findings underscore a troubling new reality for financial regulators: The barrier to launching a sophisticated cyberattack is falling fast. "This foreshadows how fast‑moving, AI‑driven cyber risks could destabilize the financial system if not managed carefully," the IMF wrote, "and why authorities must focus on building resilience through supervision and coordination -- rather than treating these developments as purely technical or operational issues." The IMF cautioned that AI may further concentrate risk across the financial system, with a single exploited weakness capable of rippling across many institutions simultaneously. Heavy reliance on a small number of cloud providers, software platforms, and AI models means one successful attack could trigger cascading failures. The fund said such scenarios could elevate cyber incidents from operational headaches to what it described as potential macro-financial shocks -- setting off confidence crises, liquidity strains, and fire-sale dynamics across markets. Yet the IMF was careful to note that AI is also part of the solution. As attackers increasingly operate at machine speed, financial institutions are deploying AI-assisted tools of their own to detect threats, prevent fraud, and accelerate incident response. The geopolitical dimension of the threat loomed large in the fund's analysis. Cyber risk does not respect national borders, and inconsistent oversight across countries could weaken the globally interconnected financial system. Emerging economies, often constrained by limited resources, may face disproportionate exposure. The IMF urged policymakers to treat cybersecurity not as a technical or operational matter but as a core financial stability concern -- prioritizing resilience standards, systemic supervision, and international coordination to contain breaches before they spread. Users on Myriad -- a prediction market platform operated by Decrypt's parent company, Dastan -- don't expect Anthropic to publicly release the powerful Claude Mythos model by June 30, penciling in a 17.5% chance as of this writing.

IMF warns of 'inevitable' AI-powered threats to global financial system

Washington (United States) (AFP) - The International Monetary Fund (IMF) warned on Thursday of the risks to global financial stability posed by cyberattacks powered by advanced artificial intelligence tools, calling for greater international cooperation on the issue. "IMF analysis suggests that extreme cyber-incident losses could trigger funding strains, raise solvency concerns, and disrupt broader markets," the lender warned in a new report. The study's authors highlighted the risks posed by the highly interconnected nature of the global financial system, with advanced AI models able to "dramatically reduce" the time and cost of exploiting vulnerabilities. The warning comes weeks after AI company Anthropic cautioned that its yet-to-be-released "Mythos" model was incredibly adept at finding and exploiting such weaknesses. The model was particularly efficient at identifying vulnerabilities that developers and users had been previously unaware of. In the hands of hackers, such so-called "zero-day" vulnerabilities are considered particularly dangerous. On Wednesday, White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett told Fox News that an "all-government" and private sector effort was being made to test the model and ensure it does not cause harm to US businesses or government. A day earlier, the US government announced a policy shift in which it would have access to tech giants' new AI models to evaluate them before they are released. The IMF warned that emerging and developing countries, "which often have more severe resource constraints, may be disproportionately exposed to attackers targeting regions with weaker defenses." The risks, the authors said, were systemic, cut across sectors and came with the threat of contagion, with the reliance on a small number of platforms and cloud providers likely to increase "the impact of any single exploited weakness." "Defenses will inevitably be breached, so resilience must also be a priority, specifically to limit how far incidents spread and ensure rapid recovery," the report said. IMF chief Kristalina Georgieva warned last month that the global financial system was not ready for the cybersecurity threats posed by AI. "We are very keen to see more attention to the guardrails that are necessary to protect financial stability in a world of AI," she told CBS News, seeking global collaboration on the issue.