Japan's PM orders urgent cybersecurity review as Mythos AI threatens critical infrastructure

Japan's PM orders cybersecurity review to stop Mythos going full CyberZilla

Japan's prime minister Sanae Takaichi has ordered a review of government cybersecurity strategy, citing the arrival of Anthropic's bug-hunting model Mythos as a moment that makes it necessary to order a cabinet-level project. In a Tuesday cabinet meeting, the PM instructed cybersecurity minister Hisashi Matsumoto to devise measures to check the state of government systems to determine whether it's possible to detect and fix vulnerabilities, and to develop a plan to ensure critical infrastructure operators can do likewise. Japan's leader ordered the checks because she feels Mythos and similar frontier models may be misused, and that attacks on infrastructure may therefore increase in speed and scale - perhaps even exponentially. Over the last couple of years cybersecurity vendors and researchers have often pointed out that AI models make it possible to find flaws and automate attacks. When Anthropic debuted Mythos in early April, the notion that AI has the potential to vastly complicate the security landscape went mainstream. Many regulators around the world have issued guidance to point out that now is the perfect time to revisit and improve security strategies and capabilities, because Mythos and other AI models mean defenses are going to be tested like never before. India's securities regulator went a step further by ordering a security review at the organizations it oversees. And now Japan's leader has decided the matter is of sufficient importance that her office needs to weigh in and set new policy to ensure AI doesn't go on a destructive rampage through Japanese infrastructure. Whether Takaichi's urgency is needed is open to debate. Some researchers have said that while Mythos can find bugs at speed, but doesn't find flaws humans can't detect with their naked brains. Others suggest Mythos is not vastly better at finding bugs than open source models that pre-date it and are publicly available - unlike Mythos which is restricted to certain users.

Takaichi says responding to Mythos is a 'race against time'

Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said Thursday that the government is rushing to take measures against the cybersecurity threats posed by the Claude Mythos artificial intelligence model, describing such efforts as a "race against time." "Finding vulnerabilities (in systems) is a race against time," Takaichi said in a meeting with Masaaki Taira, chairperson of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party's Headquarters for National Cybersecurity Strategy. "I am giving instructions to come up with concrete measures and implement them." Taira handed the prime minister a proposal on fundamentally strengthening measures regarding AI, which warned about the threats of cyberattacks using Mythos. He called for steps that enhance the cyber defense capabilities of all critical infrastructure operators.

Japan Steps Up Defense Against Advanced AI, Including Mythos

TOKYO--Japan is stepping up efforts to defend against new threats posed by artificial intelligence, as officials warned about the risks from new models like Anthropic's Mythos. Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi on Tuesday directed her digital minister and other relevant officials to devise measures to protect critical infrastructure from frontier AI models and identify cybersecurity vulnerabilities. That adds to mounting concerns among global governments and monetary authorities about the danger AI presents to financial systems and public services that won't be able to defend against increasingly faster, more sophisticated cyber attacks. New AI models like Mythos are capable of finding software vulnerabilities on their own, discovering and exploiting holes in security that developers aren't aware of, at a speed that humans cannot match. Japan's finance minister, Satsuki Katayama, said she discussed the AI cybersecurity issue with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent at their meeting in Tokyo on Tuesday. "We shared the view that we must act in sync with our Western allies to prevent such tools from being weaponized by those who do not share our values," she said. Hisashi Matsumoto, the minister in charge of Japan's cybersecurity, said Japan's government must figure out how to fend off risks from advanced AI models based on the assumption that the technology isn't yet available to the businesses and service providers that need to protect themselves. "We intend to disclose these measures in the near future and hope to make them public as soon as possible," Matsumoto said. The government has set up a working group to discuss the topic with the central bank, as well as the private sector, including major lenders and technology companies. Analysis by the International Monetary Fund suggests that extreme losses caused by a cyber incident could trigger funding strains, raise solvency concerns and disrupt broader markets. Heightened cybersecurity concerns have tempered the U.S.'s prior emphasis on rapidly deploying AI in the technological arms race against China. The White House is considering an executive order to implement a rigorous AI oversight process, prioritizing the safety and stability of high-capability models over unfettered speed. Katayama said Bessent told her progress has been made in establishing protocols between AI developers and the Treasury. "I believe it is very positive that these developments have been tracked at home," she said.