South Korea says traces of Chinese-language AI hacking tool found in bank data breaches

South Korea’s financial sector is dealing with a widening personal data breach that now spans seven financial companies, with Shinhan Bank accounting for roughly 25,000 affected individuals. According to local media reports citing the Korea Financial Security Institute, the attacks targeting Shinhan Bank, KB Kookmin Bank and Hana Bank came from nearly identical IP addresses, and investigators also found traces of an AI hacking tool developed in China and based on the Chinese language. The Financial Supervisory Service said on Oct. 6 that there were 33 attack-attempt IPs, or 28 after duplicates were removed, while cautioning that IP locations alone cannot identify the real origin because attackers may route traffic through multiple countries. On the same day, the regulator upgraded its probe into Shinhan Bank to a formal on-site inspection. Prime Minister Han Seong-sook also ordered government bodies and public institutions to immediately clean up dormant or unmanaged websites. The incident has drawn attention to exposed external systems, weak authentication controls and so-called shadow IT assets, as authorities and financial firms move into emergency inspections across the sector.