Suspect in South Korean bank cyberattacks reportedly used AI tools
A suspect who may be a 26-year-old based in China's Guangdong province has been named as the suspect in recent cyberattacks on South Korean banks.
The attacks happened in late September and early October, with the hacker reportedly using AI tools like ARTEX and Claude Code to break into financial systems.
This case is a big reminder of how AI is now being used for more advanced cybercrime.
Investigators: suspect used ARTEX against banks
Investigators say the suspect used ARTEX, an open-source AI agent for automated penetration testing, to find weak spots in bank security, then searched for ways to sell stolen Korean data, sometimes even checking out Korean Telegram groups.
Shinhan Bank and KB Kookmin Bank have confirmed customer data breaches.
Authorities are still digging into how far the attack went, while the case is likely to intensify concerns over the rise of AI agents and whether organizations are prepared to defend their systems against them.