G7 Finance Leaders Agree to Hold Tabletop Exercises Against AI Cyberattacks

Japanese Finance Minister Katsunobu Katayama said on Friday that G7 finance leaders have agreed to conduct tabletop exercises to guard against artificial intelligence-driven cyberattacks.

Speaking after a G7 finance ministers and central bank governors meeting in Bangkok, Katayama said the plan, which involves discussions on how to run drills in frontier AI, had been approved at ministerial level. A Japanese finance ministry official said the exercises would include simulated scenarios developed by G7 institutions and are designed to test how countries respond to AI-powered cyberattacks. The results would help review the effectiveness of existing protocols and update manuals for better handling such incidents.

The official added that the drills, involving G7 finance ministries and central banks, could include private financial institutions depending on the nature of the simulations. The International Monetary Fund this week warned that AI-driven cyberattacks could undermine confidence in critical services at financial institutions.

Global banking regulators are stepping up efforts to curb rising AI risks, with some noting that banks could face cyberattacks or malicious actors seeking to destabilize global finance. The Bank of England is working with major banks on deep recovery plans; its deputy governor said on Thursday that it can no longer be assumed that banks' defenses are immune to AI-driven cyberattacks.