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Hackers Used AI Agents to Raid a Megachurch's Database, Exposing 850,000 Members
decrypt.coarticle

Hackers Used AI Agents to Raid a Megachurch's Database, Exposing 850,000 Members

Seoul megachurch Yoido Full Gospel Church disclosed a breach exposing data on 850,000 members (names, birth dates, and logged changes to resident registration numbers, phone numbers and addresses), discovered by security firm Oasis Security on an overseas server alongside attack logs showing AI sub-agent activity and machine-generated attack reports. A second megachurch, Sarang Church, lost about 89,000 member and 286 employee records in a related August incident, and South Korean authorities are separately investigating suspected AI-assisted hacks at banks including Shinhan, which exposed data on about 25,000 customers. The exact role AI played in gaining initial access remains unconfirmed, but the find marks one of the first documented cases of attacker logs referencing autonomous AI sub-agents in a large-scale breach.

TL;DR AI sub-agent attack logs found alongside a breach exposing 850,000 Seoul megachurch members, part of a wider wave of suspected AI-assisted hacks in South Korea including a Shinhan Bank breach.

Organisations named here

  • Lee Jae Myung
  • Sarang Church
  • Yoido Full Gospel Church

Technologies named here

  • Yoido Full Gospel Church member database
  • Oasis Security
  • Sarang Church member and employee database
  • KISA
  • Shinhan Bank customer database
  • Firewall
  • Shinhan Bank

Techniques named here

  • AI sub-agents for attack execution

Threat actors named here

  • Unidentified hackers