{"text":[[{"start":9.68,"text":"The world’s leading economies have stepped up efforts to guard against a major cyber attack targeting the financial sector and global markets, planning “emergency drills” as concerns mount over the risks posed by frontier AI models."}],[{"start":22.84,"text":"G7 finance ministers in Bangkok this week discussed holding simulated drills and “tabletop exercises” to prepare against future attacks, as bankers and government officials gathered in Thailand for the annual meeting of the IMF expressed rising fears of “unknown unknowns”."}],[{"start":40.12,"text":"“The G7 finance deputies had been discussing the idea of doing tabletop exercises on frontier AI,” said Japan’s finance minister Satsuki Katayama. She said the G7 had agreed to carry out the exercises."}],[{"start":54.4,"text":"The G7’s decision to simulate an attack scenario and stress-test responses came amid calls for greater co-operation to deal with the rising cyber threat."}],[{"start":63.5,"text":"In recent weeks, South Korea’s president said there were signs that AI models had been used in attacks on banks, while the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority warned that frontier models were finding cyber security flaws faster than financial services companies could address them."}],[{"start":78.88,"text":"“We are all staring at the same black box. We see the risks but how to deal with it? If a few countries possess the tech but the whole world can be a victim of that technology, international co-operation is very important. That is where the unease is,” said Eelco Heinen, finance minister of the Netherlands."}],[{"start":97.92,"text":"The IMF began its annual meeting this week by highlighting AI-empowered cyber crime as one of its three biggest perceived threats to financial stability. In its flagship Global Financial Stability Report published on Tuesday, the IMF warned that AI models were emerging as powerful enablers of cyber attacks that could in turn become a source of systemic risk."}],[{"start":119.08,"text":"“Severe cyber incidents could undermine market confidence and disrupt critical financial market infrastructure and operations,” the IMF report said."}],[{"start":128.88,"text":"The proposed exercises, which could include commercial banks, would involve simulations created by different G7 financial authorities, according to one official who attended the finance ministers’ meeting."}],[{"start":139.96,"text":"The results would test the effectiveness of governments’ existing “emergency manuals” for a major cyber attack and identify flaws, the person added."}],[{"start":147.52,"text":"Officials and senior bankers in Bangkok privately warned of the unprecedented threat from cyber attack and expressed growing fears that the world’s financial systems may not be prepared for an AI-enhanced onslaught."}],[{"start":159.8,"text":"“No banker ever wants to suggest there is some sort of crisis coming, so the language is still cautious. But I think people in the industry are focusing a lot on the unknown unknowns of AI and, naturally, those are pretty scary,” said the senior risk manager of one Middle Eastern bank."}],[{"start":175.96,"text":"One person familiar with the discussions said the tabletop exercise would be equivalent to testing pilots’ responses to disasters in a flight simulator. Scenarios could include the use of AI to enhance a cyber attack and having AI-related infrastructure as part of the target, the person said."}],[{"start":192.48,"text":"Caio Ferreira, the deputy chief of the IMF’s global markets analysis division, said that the cyber threat to financial stability was getting worse."}],[{"start":200.12,"text":"Increasing and widespread digitalisation, he said, was increasing the “attack surface” for hackers and the greater reliance in financial markets on third-party service providers was creating more concentrated targets: nodes with potential systemic implications if they are disrupted by an attack. The risk came from both cyber criminals and state actors."}],[{"start":220.5,"text":"“This can become very, very difficult. If you just interrupt some of these critical service providers and financial services are interrupted for a while . . . even if you don’t have material financial losses, the loss of confidence could be a systemic event in itself,” said Ferreira."}],[{"start":236.48,"text":"Stronger AI models, the IMF warned, were making cyber defence more challenging. In particular, it highlighted the diminished time between the disclosure of cyber vulnerabilities and the exploitation of those weaknesses."}],[{"start":248.44,"text":"In 2026, in over 70 per cent of cases, exploitation occurred on average before or on the day of disclosure, up 20 percentage points from 2025 and up from a rate of about 20 per cent in 2018."}],[{"start":262.44,"text":"During the Bangkok meetings, the Financial Stability Board held discussions with ministers over how to handle the systemic risks from AI."}],[{"start":269.68,"text":"Andrew Bailey, Bank of England governor and chair of the FSB, said regulators had increased the “pace and intensity” of work on the topic. He called for greater testing of AI models and higher safety standards."}],[{"start":286.88,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1792144073_3735.mp3"}