Hackers used an artificial intelligence agent developed in China to break into some of South Korea's largest financial institutions, in what The Wall Street Journal described as one of the first AI-powered intrusions into the global financial system.
The breach exposed the personal information of about 68,000 people, the newspaper reported.
Investigators in Seoul told the WSJ that the attacks, first detected last week, hit at least seven South Korean financial firms.
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The cyberterror unit of the National Police Agency said on Tuesday that it had opened an investigation. The attack reportedly carried traces of Artex AI, a cybersecurity tool built in China.
The reports did not identify the hackers or say whether any state was involved.
Speaking at a cabinet meeting on Tuesday, President Lee Jae Myung said there were signs that AI had been used in some hacking incidents, and that this was causing considerable public worry.
The Financial Services Commission said Shinhan Bank and KB Kookmin Bank were among those affected. Yonhap news agency reported that Hana Bank and Woori Bank had also been breached.
Ahead of the alarm being raised on Tuesday, the commission's chairman, Lee Eog Weon, called an emergency meeting with financial industry associations, regulators and executives from the affected institutions.
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He told them the sector must remain on the highest alert. The Financial Supervisory Service and the Financial Security Institute have since shared data on about 28 unique IP addresses, along with country information linked to the hacking attempts, with the financial sector.
The incident points to a growing concern among security experts: that AI agents, which can carry out multistep tasks with little human direction, may lower the cost and skill needed to attack well-defended targets.
Banks hold large volumes of customer data and are already among the most heavily targeted institutions. Tools that automate tasks such as probing for weaknesses could let attackers move faster and at greater scale.
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South Korea's financial sector is highly digitised, and the country has faced a series of cyber incidents in recent years.
A breach affecting several major lenders at once is likely to prompt questions over how prepared institutions are for AI-assisted attacks, and over whether regulators need to tighten oversight of the tools involved.
For now, the focus is on establishing how the attackers gained access, what data was taken, and whether the stolen details have been put to use.
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