Banks race to ramp up AI defenses as deposits fall after cyberattacks

A wave of recent data breaches at major Korean banks is putting pressure on both customer confidence and the industry’s defenses, with deposits at these lenders declining by more than 20 trillion won ($15 billion) in just 11 days, according to industry officials, Sunday. They are now stepping up security spending and hiring specialists to keep pace with increasingly sophisticated artificial intelligence (AI)-driven attacks. Demand deposits at the country’s five largest lenders — KB Kookmin, Shinhan, Hana, Woori and NH NongHyup — totaled 675.5 trillion won on Sept. 30, but dropped to 655.4 trillion won as of Sunday. Fixed-term deposits, which had risen for five consecutive months, also fell by more than 2.7 trillion won to slightly more than 1 quadrillion won. On Oct. 1, Shinhan Bank first reported that about 25,000 customers were affected, with names, phone numbers, annual income and loan limits exposed. The following day, KB Kookmin reported 119 affected customers, while Hana Bank said personal information belonging to 89 customers was exposed. Lenders are responding with bigge