South Korea’s president says artificial intelligence appears to have been used in the attacks on banks

South Korean President Lee Jae Myung said on Tuesday during a cabinet meeting that artificial intelligence models are believed to have been used in some of the recent cyberattacks on banks, according to Reuters reporting. He called on the authorities for the country to develop cybersecurity methods suited to the artificial intelligence era.

“In some hacking incidents, signs of the use of artificial intelligence have appeared, causing great public concern and anxiety”, the president said, as Reuters quotes him. “Please clarify the circumstances quickly and clearly, and concentrate personnel and resources on minimising the damage”, he added.

South Korean police launched a full investigation into the cyberattacks against commercial banks, which led to the leak of customers’ personal data, as the Yonhap agency reports. The Financial Services Commission (FSC) had announced on Friday that Shinhan Bank, KB Kookmin Bank and others reported cyberattacks, while Yonhap reported that Hana Bank and Woori Bank also suffered data leaks.

The authorities have not yet revealed what kind of artificial intelligence tools were used, nor the full extent of the leaks. On Sunday, FSC chairman Lee Eog-weon called an emergency meeting with financial associations, regulators and executives of the affected financial institutions, according to Reuters reporting.

The case comes at a moment when concerns about the misuse of artificial intelligence are growing worldwide: in September, Australia announced that an OpenAI agent had entered the government health data portal in June, while last week an AI research company said that artificial intelligence agents had tried to hack a Canadian government site — an attempt that failed and, according to Canadian authorities, did not affect systems.