From Decrypt · By Jose Antonio Lanz
In brief
Seoul police arrested seven people over a campaign that used generative AI to hack about 90 organizations and steal 8.2 million records, which police call South Korea’s first large-scale AI-assisted hacking arrests.
The alleged ringleader, 32, taught himself hacking and added an AI coding agent and an autonomous penetration-testing tool in late August; police say he breached 60 companies in 44 days.
Emails to 38 victims demanded a combined 360 million won, about $272,000, but the only confirmed payment was 300,000 won, about $210.
Police in Seoul have arrested seven people in a hacking campaign that used generative AI to break into about 90 organizations and steal 8.2 million records.
The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency announced the case Monday and called it the first time in South Korea that suspects in a large-scale AI-assisted hacking operation have been apprehended.
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The targets included hospitals, universities, private cram schools, golf courses and subsidiaries of large conglomerates, according to police—places that hold the names, contact details and records of ordinary people. One funeral services provider lost 1.22 million records, and one report said data from the academies included information on minors.
The alleged ringleader is a 32-year-old who studied arts and physical education and has no IT background, per local reports. He told investigators he taught himself hacking through YouTube and online blogs, though police say he also did simulated attack work at a security company from 2019 to 2022.
He started with website vulnerability scanners, software that probes a site for weak spots. In late August, reports say, he added an AI coding agent—a program that writes and runs code on its own—and an autonomous penetration-testing system, a tool that automates the mock break-ins companies normally hire experts to run. Police say he then breached 60 companies in 44 days, from August 31 to October 13.
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Criminal use of AI has been building for years, mostly in reports from AI companies rather than police. WormGPT, a ChatGPT clone built without safety guardrails, was used in 2023 to write convincing phishing emails—fake messages designed to trick people into handing over money or passwords.