South Korea's five bank chiefs summoned to National Assembly audit over AI cyberattacks

The chief executives of South Korea’s five major commercial banks will appear as witnesses at a National Assembly audit on Monday to face questioning over a wave of AI-driven cyberattacks that leaked customer data.

The National Policy Committee approved the summons on 8 October: KB Kookmin Bank’s Lee Hwan-ju, Shinhan Bank’s Jung Sang-hyuk, Hana Bank’s Lee Ho-sung, Woori Bank’s Jung Jin-wan and NH NongHyup Bank’s Kang Tae-young will testify at the Financial Supervisory Service audit. It is the first time since 2022 — when embezzlement and internal-control failures were under scrutiny — that all five bank heads have been summoned together.

Shinhan suffered the largest disclosed breach, affecting about 25,000 customers. KB Kookmin reported leaks involving 119 people, including 99 customers and 20 employees, and Hana Bank reported 89 customers affected. Woori and NH NongHyup faced attacks that did not result in data breaches.

Shinhan’s security spending is expected to draw particular fire. FSS figures released by Rep. Park Dae-chul show the bank earmarked 40.59 billion won for information security this year, down 10.4 per cent — the only one of the five to allocate less than 50 billion won. Rep. Park Sang-hyeok separately reported that 109 of 4,770 vulnerabilities found in simulated hacking tests since 2022 remained unaddressed as of August.

The audit comes as all five CEOs’ terms expire on 31 December — and the banks’ handling of the hacks could complicate their reappointments.

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