The financial sector is on high alert as hacking attempts, believed to involve artificial intelligence (AI) agents, have spread beyond major banks to include savings banks, capital firms, and mutual financial institutions. Financial authorities are considering a comprehensive overhaul of security systems, citing limitations in responding to these new types of attacks.
On October 4, reports indicated that the National Agricultural Cooperative Federation (NACF) detected access attempts from the same IP address used in the recent data breach at Shinhan Bank. However, NACF's security measures successfully blocked the attempts, preventing any data leakage. Similar intrusion attempts were reported at NH Nonghyup Bank, which shares a network with NACF, but no damage occurred.
In contrast, YeGarum Savings Bank experienced a hacking incident on September 30, resulting in the exposure of personal information for approximately 40,000 customers. Hyundai Capital also reported a breach involving the personal data of 146 loan agents. Welcome Savings Bank confirmed a data leak affecting corporate clients and is currently investigating the extent of the damage.
Authorities are focusing on the possibility that these attacks were not aimed at specific financial institutions but rather involved AI tools that randomly explored vulnerabilities across multiple organizations. The primary attack vectors appeared to be employee-facing websites and business support applications, which have less stringent authentication processes compared to customer-facing systems.
Lee Ok-keun, Chairman of the Financial Services Commission, and Lee Chan-jin, Chairman of the Financial Supervisory Service, are scheduled to convene an emergency meeting at 2 p.m. today with the heads of financial associations and affected financial institutions to assess the situation.
* This article has been translated by AI.
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