South Korea’s president orders bank-hack probe, flags possible AI use

South Korean President Lee Jae Myung ordered the government to commit personnel and resources to investigating recent hacks affecting financial companies, warning that artificial intelligence may have been used in some cases.

At an October 6 Cabinet meeting, Lee directed officials to determine what happened, limit the damage and strengthen prevention. The warning was not a technical finding that AI had been used: the records reviewed for this story provide no forensic proof of AI involvement, identify no attacker and give no aggregate count of affected customers or financial losses.

The Financial Services Commission said authorities began an on-site investigation after Shinhan Bank reported an incident on September 30. Authorities expanded their work as other financial firms submitted reports. At an October 4 emergency meeting, the commission coordinated with regulators, industry associations and executives from affected institutions.

The commission urged financial firms to develop AI-based defenses.

At a separate October 6 interministerial meeting, Prime Minister Han Seong-sook ordered officials to analyze the scope and causes of the leaks, widen security checks, oversee customer-protection measures and concentrate police resources on the investigation. Lee also called for faster development and adoption of cybersecurity-specific AI tools designed to detect and block attacks in advance.