Finance Minister Urges SEBI to Step Up Cybersecurity Amid AI Risks

The Finance Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman, has called on Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), India’s capital market regulator, and other financial institutions to step up their cybersecurity efforts, warning that the risks facing India’s markets are growing more serious by the day.

Speaking at SEBI’s 38th Foundation Day in Mumbai, she stressed that even a single successful cyberattack on a major exchange, depository, or clearing corporation could have far-reaching consequences—disrupting markets nationwide, wiping out investor wealth, and damaging public trust for years.

Sitharaman highlighted the rising threat of artificial intelligence in cybercrime, noting that AI-powered tools are making attacks faster, smarter, and harder to detect. She pointed out that hackers can now automatically identify system weaknesses, tamper with source code, target software supply chains, and carry out coordinated attacks that adapt in real time to avoid being caught.