Abstract:
Comprehensive reports from Korean media such as Yonhap News Agency, Hankyoreh, and Korea Economy on the 6th indicate that many banks in South Korea have recently been attacked by hackers one after another, and personal information has been leaked. Artificial intelligence (AI) is suspected to be involved.
According to Yonhap News Agency and the Korean financial sector, many banks in South Korea have been attacked by hackers recently. About 25,000 customer information of Shinhan Bank was leaked, 119 customer information of KB Kookmin Bank was leaked, 89 customer information of Hana Bank was leaked, and the information of 11 outsourced employees of BNK Busan Bank was leaked. Attacks suspected of using AI also occurred at savings banks, loan companies, and mutual financial institutions.
In this attack, there were signs of abuse of the open source network security tool ARTEX. According to Yonhap News Agency, ARTEX can call various AI models such as Anthropic's Claude and OpenAI's GPT. It was originally used to help organizations discover network vulnerabilities, but hackers are suspected of abusing it in attacks. In order to avoid tracking, the attacker used more than 20 IP addresses in more than 10 countries including the United States, Japan, and Germany. The identity of the suspect has not yet been determined.
South Korean President Lee Jae-myung called for a thorough investigation and formulation of countermeasures. On the 6th, he further urged that the security systems of private sectors and national core systems should be inspected as soon as possible and necessary security encryption measures should be taken immediately.
Lee Jae-myung stated at the State Council meeting on the 6th that it is difficult to cope with the evolving cyber threats by relying solely on remediation after the accident. It is necessary to have pre-emptive detection capabilities and the security capabilities to proactively block attacks. He emphasized that "speed is of the essence" and called for accelerating the development and promotion of AI technology dedicated to network security, saying: "It is time to comprehensively reform the social security model to adapt to the AI era."
According to Yonhap News Agency's report on the 6th, the South Korean National Police Agency officially launched an investigation into cyber attacks suffered by seven financial institutions on the same day, accusing hackers of violating the "Information and Communications Network Act". A cyber terrorism investigation team composed of 28 members is responsible for the investigation.
Korean media said that banks are promoting security measures. Shinhan Bank plans to conduct regular security inspections at a total of 317 points on its website, mobile applications and internal systems next month; Kookmin Bank plans to introduce new intrusion detection, blocking systems and web firewalls within the year. Both banks said the relevant measures were planned in advance and had nothing to do with the incident.
South Korea's three major credit rating agencies have also begun to assess the impact of this incident. In addition to the fines and business suspension penalties that banks may face, they will also examine whether the damage to the bank's reputation and the loss of customers will affect its credit rating.
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