[Anchor]

Two major churches in South Korea have been struck by suspected hacking incidents. Sensitive information, including church members' personal details and tithing records, appears to have been leaked. Signs suggest that artificial intelligence was utilized in these cyberattacks as well.

Reporter Hong Yeongjae has the story.

[Reporter]

Last month, a domestic security company tracking multiple IP addresses suspected of being used in cyberattacks discovered an attacker's server containing massive amounts of personal information and hacking logs.

The leaked personal data originated from the integrated information system of Yoido Full Gospel Church in Seoul, which boasts the largest registered congregation in the country with 500,000 members.

Records indicate the data was stolen in August. It included sensitive information such as names, addresses, and phone numbers for up to 960,000 members, featuring update logs from the past two years, as well as tithing records spanning from 1993 to 2019.

[Kim Geun-yong / CEO, Oasis Security: mis.fgtv.com followed by code 'X' is the path to a web shell—a malicious file—where the hacker has already succeeded in the attack. It shows that a church in our country was attacked and files were leaked like this.]

Hacking materials targeting Sarang Community Church in Seocho-gu, Seoul, were also discovered.

Similarly, a massive trove of data stolen in August from the church's personnel information system was found, containing names, addresses, and phone numbers of 286 employees, including the senior pastor, and 89,000 church members.

There were also traces suggesting that AI was utilized during the hacking process.

Logs detailing the attack process featured the expression "sub-agent," meaning an AI carrying out commands, and an "attack handover report" was found on the server, summarizing hacking results, internal system structures, and account information.

[Nam Kyung-heon / Director, Oasis Security: The analyses conducted by AI were extremely well-documented so that humans could easily understand them, and a massive amount of data had been analyzed, with well over hundreds of such documents.]

The security company reported the suspected hacking incidents to security authorities last month, and the Korea Internet & Security Agency recently notified the two churches of the breach.

Both Yoido Full Gospel Church and Sarang Community Church stated that they are looking into the facts and will implement security measures to prevent further damage.

(Video by: Shin Jin-soo, Bae Moon-san, Kang Dong-chul | Video Editing: Yoon Tae-ho)