Lee Jae Myung, President,South Korean
“The entire financial sector should carry out swift and thorough security inspections,” Financial Services Commission Chairman Lee Eog-weon said in a statement Sunday, after an emergency meeting with executives from financial institutions and industry groups.
Seoul: South Korean President Lee Jae Myung ordered a thorough investigation and response measures over recent personal data leak incidents at banks, finance companies and public agencies, Seoul’s presidential office said on Sunday.
Attack traffic was reported to have originated from IP addresses across several countries including the United States, Japan, Singapore, Vietnam and Britain, Yonhap said, citing bank data submitted to lawmakers.
South Korean regulators urged financial institutions to promptly complete internal security inspections and report the results to authorities after a series of cyberattacks led to personal data breaches across the industry.
“The entire financial sector should carry out swift and thorough security inspections,” Financial Services Commission Chairman Lee Eog-weon said in a statement Sunday, after an emergency meeting with executives from financial institutions and industry groups.
Initial findings suggest some attacks targeted less closely monitored external websites and servers used by loan agents and employees, Lee said. He added that authorities could not rule out the use of artificial intelligence in the attacks and called for faster efforts to build security systems capable of “defending against AI attacks with AI.”
Several South Korean financial institutions have recently suffered personal data breaches, affecting about 40,000 customers at Yegaram Savings Bank and 25,000 at Shinhan Bank. KB Kookmin Bank, BNK Busan Bank and Hyundai Capital were also among the institutions affected, Yonhap reported.
Traces of ARTEX AI, an open-source autonomous penetration-testing system built on a large language model and available on GitHub, were found in IP addresses used in the bank attacks, Yonhap reported separately. Police are investigating, though authorities said attribution remains unclear because the tool is publicly available and the IP addresses were widely distributed across multiple countries.
South Korean President Lee Jae Myung was briefed on the data breaches and the response to the incidents, according to his spokesperson Kang Yu-jung.
The president views the matter with “grave concern” and instructed officials to conduct a thorough investigation and draw up measures in respond, Kang was cited as saying by Yonhap.
Agencies