Korean police arrest cyberhacking gang reportedly led by self-taught hacker, who allegedly used AI to breach 60 firms and received a mere $210 in ransom

As AI continues to get smarter, the schemes using it have often become more successful. However, one South Korean cyberhacking gang, reportedly led by a self-taught hacker using AI tools, doesn't seem to have made off with a king's ransom.

Despite allegedly obtaining 8.2 million records and demanding 360,000,000 Won (around $271.77K) from victims, the gang is said to have ended up receiving 300,000 Won (around $210). This is according to Yonhap News Agency, Seoul Economic Daily, and The Chosun Daily, which corroborate reports.

Altogether, the gang reportedly accessed files from over 90 firms, but 60 successful hits came from hacks using AI tools (a mixture of AI coding and an autonomous penetration testing system). The stolen data is said to have included customer information like names, registration numbers, phone numbers, and addresses.

The cyberhacking gang is also said to have sent threatening emails to those affected, saying, "If the data breach becomes public, the company’s reputation will be damaged, and government fines may be imposed." Payment info was not caught up in these breaches, and South Korean police say stolen data has not yet made it onto the dark web.

As noted by The Chosun Daily, police got to the ring fast, which might explain why only one small business appears to have paid the ransom fee. Police received a complaint from an affected company in June of this year, but the investigation officially started in August, leading to the arrest of seven individuals between July and September, including the 32-year-old alleged ringleader.

Reportedly, the ringleader majored in arts and physical education with no IT background, but learned about hacking via YouTube videos and other unnamed sources. The police believe the individuals worked on simulated hacking at a security firm between 2019 and 2022.

38 of the affected firms reportedly suffered losses, though no total monetary figure has been declared for how big those losses might be.

Still, the fact that a gang led by someone with little hacking experience managed to use AI tools to get access to secure data is certainly a worrying use case for the budding technology. And it's not the first time we've seen AI tools used in such a way. At the start of the year, Google published a list of ways AI is being used by threat actors to more efficiently hack businesses and individuals.

As AI continues to advance, this sort of activity appears to be becoming increasingly common. Although if the gains are sometimes as small as those reported here, perhaps it's an indication that cybercrime isn't always as lucrative as some might hope.