South Korean banks were likely hacked by a Chinese-based actor with an AI agent, CrowdStrike says

South Korean banks may have fallen victim to a cyberattack orchestrated by an individual from China, according to US cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike. The suspect, believed to be a 26-year-old from Guangdong province, used a Chinese-developed AI agent called ARTEX in conjunction with Anthropic's Claude Code to carry out the attacks.

At least nine South Korean banks reported being targeted since late September, leading to a police investigation and calls for stronger security measures from President Lee Jae Myung. CrowdStrike's senior vice president of counter adversary operations, Adam Meyers, emphasized that the incident demonstrated how AI agents can empower a single individual to target numerous customers rapidly.

The attack has raised concerns about the vulnerability of organizations to AI-powered threats and the need for improved defenses. Shinhan Bank and KB Kookmin Bank were among those affected, with personal information of thousands of customers compromised. The Chinese foreign ministry dismissed the allegations, stating that they are not familiar with the case and oppose hacking activities.

ARTEX, the AI agent used in the attack, is an open-source tool developed for penetration testing and is not intended for real-world testing against online systems.