South Korean and Japanese businesses are moving quickly to reinforce their cybersecurity systems as a growing number of attacks raises concerns that artificial intelligence is making cybercrime more accessible to people with limited technical expertise.

Nine South Korean banks and two large churches are investigating cyberattacks that may have involved AI tools. In Japan, a series of recent incidents has affected companies including Daiwa Securities, SoftBank and convenience store operator Lawson.

Investigators have yet to establish precisely whether AI played a role in many of these cases or how it may have been used. Cybersecurity experts, however, warn that AI can automate activities such as identifying software weaknesses and developing phishing campaigns, allowing criminals to operate more quickly, at lower cost and with a reduced chance of detection.

“AI doesn’t get tired … My view is that Japan is essentially being subjected to carpet bombing,” said Nobuo Miwa, president of Tokyo-based cybersecurity company S&J Corp.

Japan experienced more cybersecurity incidents during the first nine months of this year than throughout the entirety of last year, according to TrendAI data. The number climbed to 86 in September, approximately 18% higher than August and 37% above July.

Miwa said the increase indicates that attackers have reached a new level of “effort, motivation and technical capability.” He added that AI has largely eliminated language and other obstacles that previously made it more difficult for foreign hackers to conduct operations.

U.S. cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike said a 26-year-old attacker based in China, suspected of involvement in the attacks against South Korean banks, probably could not have executed the campaign without AI assistance.

According to CrowdStrike, the individual appeared to be motivated by financial gain and used an AI agent developed in China alongside Anthropic’s Claude Code.

“While (the hacker’s) capabilities were not terribly sophisticated, they were effective,” said Adam Meyers, CrowdStrike’s senior vice president of counter adversary operations.

AI tools are also complicating the work of cybersecurity professionals trying to identify suspicious activity, according to Choi Kyoungjin, director of the Center for AI, Data and Policy at Gachon University near Seoul.

“With general-purpose AI models, even ordinary users with malicious intent can ask the system to look for vulnerabilities and it will do much of that work for them,” he said.

South Korea recorded 1,236 cyber incidents during the first six months of the year, a 20% increase compared with the same period a year earlier. Government figures show that although server-hacking incidents declined, distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks increased by 56.7%, while ransomware cases rose 76.8%.

Meyers said the attacks targeting South Korean banks demonstrate why organizations need stronger security safeguards and more thorough testing as AI technology advances. “The genie is out of the bottle, so to speak.”

Although the incidents have not yet caused significant financial losses, the potential consequences could grow if stolen information is used in phishing operations or fraudulent text-message campaigns known as “smishing,” Karen Wu, a senior analyst at Fitch, wrote in a note.

“We expect the incidents to result in regulatory penalties, customer compensation costs, and a sector-wide increase in cybersecurity spending,” Wu said.

Concerns over AI’s expanding role in cybercrime are also being voiced by companies developing the technology itself.

Anthropic and Google, the technology company owned by Alphabet, have both cautioned that AI-assisted cyberattacks are becoming increasingly widespread around the world.

“At this point, we can assume that all threat actors are using AI in some capacity and their operations have benefited,” John Hultquist, chief analyst at Google’s Threat Intelligence Group, said last month.

Governments Begin Strengthening Cybersecurity Measures

Authorities in both South Korea and Japan have started taking steps to address the growing threat.

South Korea’s Financial Services Commission has instructed financial industry associations, regulators and executives at affected institutions to complete a cybersecurity self-assessment covering 12 specific areas.

In Japan, digital transformation minister Toshiharu Furukawa brought together representatives from government ministries and agencies on Thursday in response to the recent attacks. The National Cybersecurity Office is preparing to issue warnings to businesses.

Miwa of S&J expects cyberattacks to remain elevated, warning that the rapid advances available to attackers have fundamentally changed the cybersecurity landscape.

“The attackers have experienced a breakthrough that has rendered many of the old assumptions obsolete,” he said.

“Our defenses need their own breakthrough as well.”