South Korea, Japan tighten defenses after AI-aided hacks

Companies in South Korea and Japan are rushing to shore up their cyber defenses after a run of attacks. Security experts say the wave shows how artificial intelligence may be making it easier for criminals with limited technical skills to break in, Reuters reported.straitstimes+1

Nine South Korean banks and two megachurches are investigating cyberattacks that may have involved AI tools. In Japan, Daiwa Securities, SoftBank Corp ↗ 0.00% and the Lawson convenience store chain were hit during a recent jump in incidents. Authorities are still working out whether and how AI was used in many of the breaches. Specialists say the technology is helping attackers automate tasks such as scanning for software weaknesses and writing phishing campaigns, which makes cybercrime faster, cheaper and harder to detect.channelnewsasia

A suspect in China

U.S. security firm CrowdStrike ↗ 4.57% said the South Korean bank attacks were likely carried out by a 26-year-old based in China who was after money. The company said the suspect used a Chinese-developed AI agent and Anthropic's Claude Code, and probably could not have run the campaign without AI help.channelnewsasia

"While (the hacker's) capabilities were not terribly sophisticated they were effective," said Adam Meyers, CrowdStrike's senior vice president of counter adversary operations. "The genie is out of the bottle, so to speak."channelnewsasia

Choi Kyoungjin, director of the Center for AI, Data and Policy at Gachon University, said general-purpose AI models let "even ordinary users with malicious intent" ask the system to find vulnerabilities, "and it will do much of that work for them."channelnewsasia

Incidents climbing

TrendAI data shows Japan recorded more cybersecurity incidents in the first nine months of 2026 than in all of 2025. September had 86 incidents, about 18% more than August and 37% more than July. "AI doesn't get tired … My view is that Japan is essentially being subjected to carpet bombing," said Nobuo Miwa, president of Tokyo-based security firm S&J Corp.straitstimes+1

South Korea reported 1,236 cyber incidents in the first half of the year, up 20% from a year earlier. Server hacking cases fell, but government data showed reports of distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks rose 56.7% and ransomware reports rose 76.8%.channelnewsasia

Regulators respond

South Korea's Financial Services Commission has told financial industry associations, regulators and executives at affected firms to complete a 12-point cybersecurity self-assessment. In Japan, Digital Transformation Minister Toshiharu Furukawa called a meeting of ministries and agencies on Oct. 8, and the National Cybersecurity Office plans to send warnings to businesses.straitstimes

The breaches have not yet caused material financial losses. Fitch analyst Karen Wu warned that risks could grow if stolen data is used in phishing or "smishing" text scams, and said she expects "regulatory penalties, customer compensation costs, and a sector-wide increase in cybersecurity spending."channelnewsasia

Miwa expects attacks to stay high. "The attackers have experienced a breakthrough that has rendered many of the old assumptions obsolete," he said. "Our defences need their own breakthrough as well."channelnewsasia