European regulator warns of accelerated cyber threats from AI in finance
Europe's top securities regulator warned that rapidly advancing AI models could increase the speed and severity of cyberattacks on the financial sector. Regulators are assessing defences among supervised financial entities and considering whether to designate AI providers as critical infrastructure providers requiring additional oversight.
What happened
Verena Ross, chair of the European Securities and Markets Authority, stated that cyber threat risks and the potential speed of cyberattacks are growing as AI models evolve quickly, with geopolitical tensions increasing cybersecurity risks.
ESMA has been contacting financial entities it supervises to assess their cybersecurity defences in light of recent developments in AI. The financial sector was rattled by reports that Anthropic's new AI model, Mythos, can find and exploit previously undiscovered cybersecurity vulnerabilities in IT systems.
Reported impact
Ross said regulators are grappling with challenges in keeping pace with AI changes and must increase their capability to oversee financial entities and critical third-party providers.
Index analysis
The incident reflects concerns about the potential speed and capability of AI-enabled cyberattacks in the financial sector, rather than an actual breach or attack that has occurred.
Governance controls
ESMA, along with two other EU regulators, named 19 technology companies as critical third-party providers to the bloc's finance industry in November as part of new regulation to improve tech resilience, though Ross declined to comment on whether AI providers could be added to this group.
Classification
Sources and evidence
This record was researched and written by the Index, based on the following original reporting.