AI may have been used in wave of attacks on financial firms

Artificial intelligence may have been used in a string of cyberattacks on South Korea's financial sector, president Lee Jae Myung said on Tuesday as police announced an investigation.

More than seven financial institutions, including some of the country's biggest banks, have reported customer data breaches in the past week, AFP reports.

More than 68,000 people have been affected, according to the Financial Services Commission. Shinhan Bank, KB Kookmin Bank, Hana Bank and BNK Busan Bank were among those hit, and the breaches later spread to non-bank firms.

Lee told a cabinet meeting that there were signs AI had been used in some of the attacks, causing considerable concern and anxiety among the public. He said AI had reached a point where it could make hacking easy even for people without special skills, and that hacking methods were becoming more sophisticated and the damage spreading on a scale difficult to compare with the past.

He said the government, companies and society as a whole needed to recognise the seriousness of the situation and stay vigilant.

Police said the investigation had been launched at Lee's urging. A government official said it was highly likely that Artex AI, an open-source security testing tool believed to be a Chinese AI system, was used in the attacks, but officials said its use did not mean the attackers were Chinese.

Park Sang-won, head of the Financial Security Institute, said attackers can move between IP addresses in multiple locations, so an attacker cannot be identified from an IP address alone.

An IP address is a unique number assigned to an internet connection.

The ability of AI systems to find previously unknown software vulnerabilities and hack banks, companies or government infrastructure is in the global spotlight as leading labs release ever more advanced models.

Sources: AFP & The Korea Times