Following Shinhan, Kookmin Bank also leaked customer information due to AI hacking... Financial sector security ‘emergency’

(Seoul = Yonhap News) Reporter Chae Sae-rom = Following Shinhan Bank, KB Kookmin Bank also suffered an incident where customer information was leaked due to an artificial intelligence (AI) hacking attack, putting security in the financial sector, where trust is vital, on alert.

As unprecedented leaks continue to occur at Korea's two largest commercial banks, some are pointing out that the security system and response level of the financial sector needs to be completely overhauled.

According to the financial sector on the 2nd, KB Kookmin Bank confirmed that about 100 pieces of customer information were leaked due to an external intrusion.

It is reported that KB Kookmin Bank became aware of such hacking damage during its own inspection to see if there had been a similar intrusion attempt by hackers after Shinhan Bank's customer information leak incident became known.

Shinhan Bank announced the previous day that the information of about 25,000 customers was leaked due to an unauthorized hacking incident in its specialized communications structure (code).

The biggest characteristic of this personal information leak incident is that 'hacking automation' has become a reality in the AI ​​era.

Until now, the main system targeting all customers was the main target of general hackers, but in this case, Shinhan Bank's service exclusively for loan originators and Kookmin Bank's mobile work support system for employees were relatively poorly managed systems that allowed AI agents to search for vulnerabilities and repeat attacks.

A financial security expert said, "Existing hackers work by stealing information from large systems, but AI scans all small systems to find security vulnerabilities. It is a new hacking method in the AI ​​era."

It is fortunate that the core financial transaction system itself was not breached, but it is difficult to avoid the point that there were loopholes in the security system as customer information was actually leaked to the outside world.

Experts emphasized that the financial sector must completely revamp its defense system to respond to AI-based attacks, as this incident may increase consumers' anxiety about the stability of the financial system.

Kim Hwan-guk, a professor in the Department of Information Security and Cryptography at Kookmin University, said, “Whether hackers use AI to increase the productivity of attacks or the agents themselves use AI, there will be an increase in AI attempts to attack vulnerable sites.” He added, “As AI-based attacks become more sophisticated, response systems must quickly change the paradigm by equipping themselves with AI-based defense systems.”

As financial accidents continue, the possibility that commercial bank presidents will appear before the upcoming government audit has increased.

Park Sang-hyeok, a member of the Democratic Party of Korea and the ruling party's secretary on the National Assembly's Political Affairs Committee, said on Facebook on the same day, "We cannot just watch a situation where customer information is leaked repeatedly from banks that are in charge of the people's property and credit information. We will call commercial bank presidents as witnesses for the National Assembly's inspection and strictly ask them about the causes and responsibilities of repeated security incidents and come up with measures to put the public at ease."