Nicosia, Cyprus. The Central Bank of Cyprus has highlighted a new warning from the European Systemic Risk Board over growing cyber risks posed by advanced artificial intelligence models. It said it will continue to monitor developments closely and expects financial institutions to strengthen their resilience against emerging threats.
ESRB warning on frontier AI models
The warning concerns frontier artificial intelligence models, which the ESRB said could significantly reshape the cyber threat landscape in the short to medium term by making cyberattacks faster, larger in scale and more sophisticated.
According to the ESRB, these advanced AI models have the potential to accelerate the discovery of software vulnerabilities, support the development and exploitation of malicious cyber tools, and significantly reduce the time available for organisations to detect and respond to attacks.
The European body warned that these developments represent systemic cyber risks affecting the financial sector as a whole rather than individual institutions.
Call for coordinated response
The CBC said the ESRB is calling for a coordinated response across the European Union, involving national authorities, financial institutions and critical technology service providers.
The central bank added that it will continue to monitor developments closely and expects supervised financial institutions to take all necessary measures to strengthen their cyber resilience against these emerging risks.
ECB sets deadline for banks
The warning comes as the European Central Bank has also stepped up its focus on the cybersecurity implications of rapidly advancing artificial intelligence.
According to the ECB, euro area banks have been given until October 31 to submit detailed plans outlining how they intend to address AI-enabled cyber threats that could undermine confidence in the financial system and disrupt payment services.
In a letter sent to bank chief executives, the ECB said recent advances in frontier AI models have potentially profound implications for the confidentiality, integrity and resilience of banks’ information and communication technology systems.
The ECB instructed banks to prioritise the protection of internet-facing systems and other exposed technology assets, including third-party software and open-source components.
