Jan. 27 (Asia Today) — South Korea’s Ministry of Science and ICT warned Tuesday that the impact of last year’s large-scale hacking incidents is far from over, cautioning that leaked personal data could be exploited in more sophisticated cyberattacks this year.
According to the 2025 Cyber Threat Trends and 2026 Cyber Threat Outlook Report released by the ministry and the Korea Internet & Security Agency, experts expect a rise in cyberattacks that combine previously leaked personal information with artificial intelligence-based techniques.
The report said 2,383 information breach cases were recorded last year, a 26.3% increase from the previous year. Authorities warned that secondary damage could intensify as attackers reuse stolen data for scams, voice phishing and identity theft.
Concerns are growing that AI technologies such as deepfake audio and video could amplify these threats. By merging leaked personal details with AI-generated impersonations, attackers can make fraud attempts appear more convincing, the report said.
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Last November, hacker groups were found to have abused Claude, a large language model developed by U.S. AI startup Anthropic, to conduct cyberattacks against more than 30 targets, including government and financial institutions. Google’s AI model Gemini has also been misused for reconnaissance and phishing research, contributing to increasingly advanced attack methods.
South Korea faces heightened risk after multiple major data breaches last year. In September, an illegal femtocell breach at KT exposed device identification numbers and phone numbers of more than 20,000 subscribers. The personal data leak at Coupang is estimated to have affected about 33.7 million users.
The government said it will invest 401.2 billion won ($302 million) in information security this year, up 7.7% from last year, to strengthen national cyber defense capabilities. It also plans to impose punitive fines of up to 3% of sales on companies that suffer repeated hacking incidents, aiming to prevent a recurrence of large-scale breaches.
Professor Lee Won-tae of Kookmin University said last year underscored the urgent need for AI-era security systems.
“Last year was a painful lesson for our society about the importance of AI security,” Lee said in a report. “This year must be the time to design national security, governance and infrastructure strategies suited to the AI era. Without a robust AI security system, global AI leadership is unattainable.”
— Reported by Asia Today; translated by UPI
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Original Korean report: https://www.asiatoday.co.kr/kn/view.php?key=20260127010012607
