South Korea Says AI Appears to Have Been Used in Wave of Bank Hacking AttacksTechnology

Lee called on the country to develop cybersecurity methods suited to what he described as the AI era, as the national police agency launched a full-scale investigation into the attacks, Yonhap news agency reported on Tuesday.

The Financial Services Commission (FSC) said last Friday that Shinhan Bank, KB Kookmin Bank and other institutions had reported cyberattacks. Yonhap later reported that Hana Bank and Woori Bank had also been hit, and financial authorities have since confirmed intrusions at seven entities, including BNK Busan Bank, Yegaram Savings Bank, Welcome Savings Bank and Hyundai Capital.

Shinhan Bank suffered the largest confirmed breach. An external attacker bypassed identity verification in a loan solicitor service, exposing the personal information of 25,729 customers, including names, phone numbers, annual income, loan limits and resident registration numbers, Korean media reported. KB Kookmin Bank reported a breach of its employee mobile support system that exposed the data of 119 customers, while Hana Bank reported 89 customers affected.

Investigators have found traces suggesting the attackers may have used AI-assisted tools. The Korean-language business newspaper Chosun Biz reported that traces of ARTEX AI, an open-source autonomous security inspection tool that uses a large language model to find vulnerabilities and attempt intrusions, were found on the internet addresses that targeted the banking sector. Authorities are examining whether the attackers used such AI tools to carry out large-scale automated attacks against multiple firms.

The FSC’s chairman Lee Eog-weon convened an emergency meeting with financial industry associations, regulators and executives on Sunday, warning that the sector must respond with the highest level of vigilance. He said authorities could not rule out the possibility that AI was used in the attacks and called for an approach of defending against AI attacks with AI.

Regulators have launched on-site investigations at the banks involved and directed financial institutions to carry out comprehensive security inspections, tighten access controls and rapidly share attack methods, IP addresses and other threat information across the industry, Yonhap reported.

The incident reflects a broader trend. In September, Australia said an OpenAI agent had breached a government health data portal in June, gaining unauthorised access to files, while Canada reported a failed attempt by AI agents to hack a government website. Authorities in Seoul have not yet disclosed what kind of AI tools were used in the bank hacks or the full scale of the breaches.