Kaohsiung:Police in Kaohsiung announced the arrest of a man suspected of stealing over 230,000 pieces of personal information using an automated hacking program developed with generative artificial intelligence (AI). The suspect, identified as a port worker surnamed Lin, allegedly used the program to extract membership and customer data from websites in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Thailand, which he then sold on the dark web.
According to Focus Taiwan, the Kaohsiung City Police Department's Criminal Investigation Corps revealed that Lin targeted two government agencies, two private publishers, and a senior citizens' talent class. The case was reported to the Kaohsiung District Prosecutors Office, and the investigation was expanded with the Criminal Investigation Bureau's High-Tech Crime Center under the Ministry of the Interior.
Police executed a search of Lin's residence in October, leading to his arrest. During the operation, they seized high-performance computer equipment, cloud storage devices, network switches, and other evidence. Following questioning, Lin was referred to prosecutors on suspicion of offenses against computer security and released on NT$30,000 (US$900) bail.
The Criminal Investigation Corps issued a warning about the potential misuse of generative AI and AI agents, which lower the technical threshold for computer programming and could be exploited by criminals. They urged government agencies, businesses, and website operators to routinely update their systems, conduct cybersecurity checks and vulnerability scans, and encrypt and back up important information.
