World leaders must wise up to threat of cyber-attacks or rogue fridges will be least of their worries | Heather Stewart
Source: The Guardian ·
Global cooperation seems unlikely despite AI increasing the risk of digital fraud and the need to protect the financial systemRogue French fridges were an unlikely talking point for the world’s leading economists, central bankers and finance chiefs meeting in a sultry Bangkok last week – helping to underline the spiralling cost of cyber-attacks.Kristalina Georgieva, the managing director of the…
From the source
Rogue French fridges were an unlikely talking point for the world’s leading economists, central bankers and finance chiefs meeting in a sultry Bangkok last week – helping to underline the spiralling cost of cyber-attacks. Kristalina Georgieva, the managing director of the International Monetary Fund, seized on news that supermarket chains across France had to chuck out piles of spoiled food after hackers accessed their fridge controls and turned up the temperature to 50C. Speaking at the fund’s annual meetings in the Thai capital, she was keen to hammer home the importance of guarding against “bad actors” in a rapidly changing, interconnected world – especially now that AI was “putting the potential of digital fraud on steroids”. Policymakers have been warning for some time that the AI boom could at some point threaten financial stability via a share price crash – a “correction”, as it is euphemistically called. But a different, related threat came into sharp focus in Bangkok.…