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A new hacking attack, suspected to have been carried out by an artificial intelligence (AI) agent, has resulted in information leaks at 16 domestic financial institutions, with around 100,000 personal data records compromised. The investigation by financial authorities is ongoing, and additional affected financial institutions may emerge.

The Financial Committee held a 'Second Emergency Situation Response Meeting' on the 14th to present the findings of their checks. In total, 16 financial institutions have been confirmed as affected, including Shinhan, Korea Exchange, Busan, Hanarang, Wave, DB, OK Savings Bank, Modern Capital, New Savings Trust Exchange, among others.

Online investment-linked financial intermediaries such as PFCTech, Mu, electronic finance companies like BrightFix for convenient payments and fund transfers, and virtual asset exchanges like Streamer and Prangdo are also included. Notably, the breaches at DB Savings Bank and Modern Capital were revealed for the first time through this announcement.

The Financial Committee stated that they are still investigating based on internet addresses (IP) used in the hacking, and more financial institutions may be added to the list. The compromised personal information mainly includes customers' names, contact details, resident registration numbers, email addresses, etc. No cases of account or card numbers being leaked have been confirmed.

The Financial Committee also noted that some financial institutions had lax security management practices. Out of 555 financial companies' security items checked, 425 had no deficiencies, while 130 did. The issues included not applying the latest security patches, not having 24-hour monitoring systems set up, and inadequate controls on external connection systems.

Shinhan Bank, Korea Exchange, and Hanarang Savings Bank submitted reports with deficiencies, but later completed security measures and were graded as satisfactory. The Financial Committee intends to identify all computer systems of financial institutions connected to external internet and conduct comprehensive security management audits, strengthen access rights and authentication processes, and is planning to build an AI security monitoring system in collaboration with the Financial Security Authority and sectoral financial associations.