Korean banks to boost cyber-security spending in 2027 amid AI attacks and PHP flaw

In response to a surge of suspected AI-agent cyberattacks and a critical PHP security flaw, South Korea’s leading banks are set to raise their cyber-security budgets for the coming year, with each planning to spend at least 100 billion won. Hana Bank intends to allocate more than 100 billion won, marking a rise of over 50 % from one outlet year, while NH NongHyup Bank eyes a roughly 20 % increase to reach a similar level.

KB Kookmin Bank has already announced a budget exceeding 100 billion won, and Woori Bank’s security unit is considering a 20 % boost. Shinhan Bank will adjust its spending according to its medium-term security strategy. Following the disclosure of the PHP vulnerability, which could let attackers run commands on servers without authentication, the Financial Security Institute advised banks to verify their PHP versions, apply patches, and retire outdated releases. Kookmin has secured two of five affected services and paused the rest, raising its monitoring alert level; Woori has protected two external services, and Hana and NongHyup reported no confirmed exposure.