Solo Hacker Weaponizes Open-Source ARTEX AI Tool to Breach Seven South Korean Banks, Exposing 66,000 Records

A suspected lone threat actor deployed an open-source, AI-powered penetration-testing tool called ARTEX to breach seven South Korean financial institutions in late September and early October 2026, compromising personal and corporate records for approximately 68,000 individuals. The incident marks one of the first confirmed cases of autonomous AI agents being weaponized at scale against critical financial infrastructure, raising alarms across the security industry about the democratization of attack capabilities.