[2026 Audit] Financial Sector Braces for AI Hacking Surge... CEOs of Data-Breached Firms Line Up as Witnesses

The parliamentary audit by the National Assembly's Science, ICT, Broadcasting, and Communications Committee (SICTCC), which began on October 6, was marked by continued criticism of the government's response to a series of artificial intelligence (AI)-driven hacking incidents in the financial sector. As hacking threats using AI agents (assistants) have become a reality, there were calls for swift countermeasures. There were also voices pointing out the need for compensation plans and preventive measures following a series of corporate personal information leaks last year and again this year.

Yonhap News Agency

On the same day, Choi Hyungdu of the People Power Party, who serves as the opposition secretary of the SICTCC, criticized the Ministry of Science and ICT for insufficiently submitting materials regarding AI hacking in the financial sector, stating, "The Ministry of Science and ICT, the department responsible for cyber security, is shifting the responsibility by claiming that it falls under the Financial Services Commission’s jurisdiction. The ministry silos remain as excuses for jurisdictional buck-passing and avoidance of responsibility among departments."

There was also heated debate on the preparation of compensation and preventive measures for personal information leakage incidents. On site as a witness was Tving CEO Choi Juhee, after this year’s large-scale data breach at the company. Other witnesses included Kim Junghoon, Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) of Woowa Brothers, Park Sookyung, CEO of Duo, Hong Seungil, CEO of Healing Paper (operator of Gangnam Unni), and Lim Hanuk, CEO of Toss Payments. In addition, CISOs from the three major telecom companies — Lee Jonghyun, CISO of SK Telecom; Lee Sangwoon, CISO of KT; and Hong Kwanhee, CISO of LG Uplus — also appeared before the audit committee.

Prior to the audit, major commercial banks such as Shinhan Bank, KB Kookmin Bank, and Hana Bank experienced successive information leakage incidents suspected to involve AI agents. As simultaneous AI hacking attacks occurred across the financial sector, investigations by the Financial Services Commission and Financial Supervisory Service are currently underway. However, the Ministry of Science and ICT is also operating a 24-hour emergency response system to prevent the spread of damage to similar sectors and additional losses. Although the Standing Committee with jurisdiction over this financial sector hacking is the National Policy Committee, the Ministry of Science and ICT and Korea Internet & Security Agency (KISA) are also being held accountable, as they oversee responses to cyber incidents.

Questions were also raised regarding the confusion over the Independent AI Foundation Model (독파모) project. On this day, Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Science and ICT Bae Kyunghoon expressed at the audit hearing his intention to push ahead with the development of frontier AI models and public AI projects without delays. Vice Prime Minister Bae stated, "We will strengthen public-private cooperation to ensure that investments in the three major mega-projects progress without impediment," adding, "To focus on building a fundamental AI-based society, we will launch the public AI service by the end of this year."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.