Hackers using AI hacked into leading religious organizations in South Korea

Two leading religious organizations in South Korea are investigating cyberattacks that may have leaked the personal data of hundreds of thousands of parishioners. According to Reuters, experts found in the hacking of the databases of religious organizations signs of the use of artificial intelligence.

The attackers affected the Seoul-based Yoido Full Gospel Church and Sarang Church. The Church of the Complete Gospel of Yoido is the largest Protestant community in the world in terms of the number of registered parishioners (more than 800,000). Sarang Church has about 80,000 parishioners.

The cyber attack was discovered by Oasis Security. Its specialists analyzed data on a foreign server of hackers, where they found mention of “counterparties” and automated reports of a cyberattack, which are signs of using AI. Experts of the company note that criminals are increasingly using AI for cyber attacks, which allows them to fully automate the hacking process. At the same time, AI not only looks for vulnerabilities, but also extracts, and then analyzes and structures the stolen data.

Both religious organizations have set up emergency working groups to investigate the incident, blocked external access to databases and alerted parishioners whose data may have been in the possession of attackers.

Alena Miklashevskaya