Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday urged all entities in the financial sector to be ‘exceptionally vigilant’ on cybersecurity.
Without naming Mythos, the newly minted platform from leading AI company Anthropic, Sitharaman said artificial intelligence tools were making cyberattacks faster and more adaptive.
“Such tools can also evade detection by deploying tactics like automated discovery of system vulnerabilities and malicious source-code interference,” she added.
“… not just Sebi but all regulated entities will have to remain exceptionally vigilant. The tools of attack are evolving at high speed, and the tools of defence must evolve even faster,” Sitharaman said, speaking at the 38th foundation day event of the capital markets regulator.
The comments come amid heightened fears over the capabilities of Mythos, which has sent regulators and policymakers scrambling around the world to understand the platform and ways to safeguard their systems.
She warned that a single successful cyberattack on a major exchange, depository, or a large broker can disrupt markets on a national scale, erase wealth and shake public confidence and urged Sebi to meet the emerging challenge of cybersecurity.
Besides, she said IPO activity remained buoyant, with a record number of 366 IPOs, which facilitated a capital of around Rs 1.9 lakh crore during the FY2025-26.
Sitharaman said SEBI led India’s transition to a T+1 (Trade date plus one) settlement cycle for all listed securities, completing the phased rollout in January 2023.
That put India well ahead of many leading markets, including the US, which shifted to T+1 in May 2024. She pointed out that SEBI pioneered the ASBA (Applications Supported by Blocked Amount) mechanism for IPOs, a global innovation that eliminated refund cycles and blocked only the allotted amount in the investor’s own bank account.
Not only this, but the Finance Minister highlighted that SEBI and National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) made India the first jurisdiction in the world to enable IPO applications through UPI, bringing real-time retail participation in primary markets to every smartphone.
Sitharaman further added that SEBI’s success rates — over 90 per cent in the Supreme Court, 73 per cent at the Securities Appellate Tribunal, 92 percent at Civil Courts/NCLT — these statistics demonstrate the institutional strength of its legal architecture.
On cybersecurity, the Finance Minister noted that SEBI has done commendably well and good work with the Cybersecurity and Cyber Resilience Framework that came into effect in April 20.
