AI Hacking Tool ARTEX Breaches Multiple South Korean Banks in Solo Attack

A single suspected Chinese-speaking attacker breached multiple South Korean financial institutions between late September and early October 2026. At Shinhan Bank alone, the attacker stole over 25,000 records containing names, contact details, incomes, and credit limits. The breach was executed using ARTEX, an open-source AI penetration tool posted to GitHub in July that autonomously discovers security flaws. The underlying tool leveraged models including DeepSeek v4.1-flash, GLM-5.3, and Grok 4.6 to automate the attacks. Crowdstrike researchers discovered Claude Code session logs on the attacker's open directories, revealing searches for Telegram groups to sell the stolen banking data.