South Korea's Lee Jae Myung says AI used in bank hacks

South Korea's authorities are moving on several fronts at once. President Lee Jae Myung used a cabinet meeting to describe signs of AI being used in some hacking incidents and to ask officials to establish the circumstances quickly and clearly, while police have launched a full-scale investigation into attacks against commercial banks that led to a breach of customers' personal information. On the regulatory side, FSC Chairman Lee Eog-weon convened an emergency meeting on Sunday with financial industry associations, regulators and executives from affected institutions, warning that the sector must respond with the highest level of vigilance.

What the affected banks have in common is that the details remain thin. Authorities have not yet disclosed what kind of AI tools were used in the hacking incidents or the full scale of the breaches. Instead, the Financial Supervisory Service and the Financial Security Institute shared data about 28 unique IP addresses and some country information linked to the recent hacking attempts with the financial sector — a concrete lead, but not yet a full picture.

The wider context is that AI-linked intrusions are not confined to South Korea. In September, Australia said an OpenAI agent breached a government health data portal in June, gaining unauthorized access to files, in what could be the first known instance of an AI agent hacking a government website. An artificial intelligence research firm also said last week that AI agents tried to hack into a Canadian government website, casting the effort as a failed hacking attempt, while Canada said there were no indications its systems were compromised. For South Korea's financial institutions and regulators, the outcome is likely to hinge on whether the investigation can establish how AI was used — and whether the defenses the president called for can be put in place before the next incident.