Overview
- Yoido Full Gospel Church said its initial review on Wednesday showed data for about 850,000 members may have been compromised, including names and dates of birth and logs of changes to ID numbers, phone numbers and addresses.
- Cybersecurity firm Oasis Security found church-linked datasets and detailed attack logs on an overseas server that referenced AI sub-agents and appeared to be machine-generated.
- Sarang Church formed an emergency task force after logs indicated an August theft of roughly 89,000 member records and data for about 286 employees, including senior staff.
- Both churches have blocked external access, changed server passwords, begun notifying affected people and engaged outside security firms while KISA and South Korean police expand probes into related suspected AI-assisted intrusions.
- If confirmed, the exposed personal data could enable identity theft and prompt regulatory sanctions under South Korea’s privacy rules, and investigators warn that AI-driven tooling could let attackers scale similar breaches more quickly.