In the Age of AI Hacking, Financial Security Is About Blocking, Not Punishing

The financial sector has been hit hard by AI hacking, and its response strategy is shifting from 'punishment' to 'blocking.' The financial industry held an emergency roundtable to discuss countermeasures against AI-based cyberattacks (computer intrusion), proposing that the focus should be on preventing the spread of damage rather than punishing perpetrators.

Participants took as their common starting point the fact that the very nature of attacks has changed. The roundtable concluded that AI has transformed the economics of cyberattacks. Attacks that were once the exclusive domain of a small number of highly skilled 'artisan' hackers have expanded, thanks to AI tools, into territory anyone can attempt. The result is a structure where attack costs fall while the number of attempts rises.

Kwak Kyung-ju, executive vice president and head of business operations at Theori, said 'the era of select-and-focus is over,' arguing that attention must be spread evenly across all systems. Kwak cited banks' outdated legacy systems as one of the challenges of security management, and referenced the SK Telecom hacking incident of April last year as an example of problems with security organizations' authority.