Chinese-speaking hacker possibly linked to AI-driven attacks on S. Korean banks: report

CrowdStrike, a U.S. cybersecurity firm, has identified an unidentified Chinese-speaking hacker who utilized AI-powered hacking tools to infiltrate multiple South Korean banks between late September and early October. The attacker employed ARTEX, an open-source AI-powered penetration-testing tool developed in China, along with large language models (LLMs) to execute the cyberattacks.

These attacks targeted financial institutions such as Hana Bank, KB Kookmin Bank, and Shinhan Bank, compromising systems including a bank's loan inquiry service and a mobile work-support system for employees. While the threat actor has not been named, CrowdStrike believes the attacker is likely a Chinese speaker and financially motivated, with a moderate level of confidence in this assessment.

This incident has prompted financial authorities and investigators to probe the series of data breaches at Korean financial institutions.

Brief written by urgent.news from The Korea Times's own syndicated text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.