Feds Warn Major Banks of Anthropic Mythos Cyber Threat

A Treasury Department spokesperson confirmed Friday (April 10) that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent convened a meeting with bank CEOs to address developments in artificial intelligence.

Bloomberg had reported Thursday (April 9), citing unnamed sources, that the heads of the Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve held an “urgent” meeting with CEOs of major banks to discuss concerns about potential future cyber risks posed by Anthropic’s Mythos and other artificial intelligence (AI) models.

Bessent and Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell arranged the meeting at Treasury’s headquarters in Washington to ensure the banks are aware of the potential risks and are taking precautions, according to the report.

Many of the CEOs were already in Washington to attend a meeting of the Financial Services Forum, per the report.

Reached by PYMNTS, a Treasury spokesperson said in an emailed statement that this week’s meeting was convened by Bessent to initiate a coordinated approach to the rapid developments in AI.

Treasury plans to lead more such meetings with regulators and institutions on an ongoing basis, addressing AI and other issues, the spokesperson said.

“President Trump and the Administration are continuing to engage on AI security in a thoughtful manner,” the spokesperson said. “The White House has been leading an ongoing core interagency taskforce, which includes the Treasury, that has been proactively engaging across the government and industry to execute the first phases of a plan to ensure the United States and Americans are protected.”

Reached by PYMNTS, the Federal Reserve declined to comment on the report.

According to the report, Anthropic has limited the release of Mythos to a few major firms so they can secure their systems before similar AI models are released.

It was reported Tuesday (April 7) that Anthropic unveiled a program called Project Glasswing that will allow select partners to gain early access to “Claude Mythos Preview.”

The initiative includes participation from leading companies such as Amazon, Microsoft and Apple, alongside cybersecurity and infrastructure players like Crowdstrike, Palo Alto Networks, Google and Nvidia.

The model is being positioned specifically for defensive cybersecurity work, and the initiative is meant to allow partners to identify vulnerabilities and strengthen systems before threats can be exploited, according to the report.

In its announcement of Project Glasswing, Anthropic said: “Anthropic has also been in ongoing discussions with US government officials about Claude Mythos Preview and its offensive and defensive cyber capabilities.”

The company also said in the announcement: “We are hopeful that Project Glasswing can seed a larger effort across industry and the private sector, with all parties helping to address the biggest questions around the impact of powerful models on security.”

It was reported March 26 that an accidental data leak forced Anthropic to confirm that it is testing an unreleased AI model called Claude Mythos that has capabilities that exceed any system it has previously released.

A day later, on March 27, it was reported that concerns about the capabilities of an AI model being tested by Anthropic drove down cybersecurity stocks.

In November, Anthropic reported that another of its AI models had been manipulated into carrying out a wide-reaching cyber-espionage operation.

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