A French bank was forced to freeze payments this week after more than €100 million was reportedly stolen. It is the latest in a run of cyberattacks on banks, financial firms, and crypto platforms worldwide.

Social media posts this week have claimed the global financial system is under coordinated attack.

The reality is less dramatic. However, there is a real trend behind it, and regulators have been preparing Ireland’s biggest banks for exactly this kind of threat.

Here’s what has actually happened, and what it means for customers with Irish bank accounts.

France: €118 million reportedly taken

Crédit Mutuel Arkéa, one of France’s big regional banking groups, confirmed on Wednesday that it had been hit by a cyberattack.

As a precaution, the bank paused some transactions, so customers could not make certain transfers in its apps.

French media report that about €118 million was moved out through transfers from Fortuneo, the group’s online bank, into cryptocurrency accounts opened under false identities.

Arkéa said the attackers did not get in through customer accounts or its online bank. Instead, hackers used a platform run by one of its service providers to get into the bank’s own account and send money elsewhere.

The bank said: ‘We want to reassure all our customers: this incident has no financial consequences for them.’

South Korea: suspected AI attacks

Since late September, attackers have broken into at least seven South Korean banks and lenders.

At Shinhan Bank, the names, phone numbers, incomes and borrowing limits of about 25,000 customers were exposed through a service used by loan brokers.

Investigators suspect AI hacking tools were used, and BNK Busan bank said an AI agent was behind an attempt on its systems.

Regulators say no passwords or security codes were taken and no customer has lost money.

Japan: a $50 million ransom demand

Hackers broke into a cloud service run by Japanese internet company GMO, which several currency trading firms use. They demanded $50 million in cryptocurrency.

The company refused to pay. Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi promised an emergency package of cybersecurity measures.

Belgium: tax portal offline

Belgium’s finance ministry took its online tax portal offline after a cyberattack on October 28 and pushed some filing deadlines back to November 16.

It says no taxpayer data was leaked.

Crypto: the biggest heist on record

On October 29, hackers stole more than $6 billion from Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange. The FBI has blamed North Korea.

Binance says it worked with partners to freeze about $3 billion of the stolen funds and has promised to cover customers’ losses.

What isn’t true

Some viral posts claim the European Central Bank confirmed last month that hackers had planted malware on one of its websites. That story is from 2019.

In October, the European Banking Authority briefly took its website offline as a precaution while it addressed some software flaws. However, there was no breach.

Are the attacks connected?

No evidence points to a single coordinated campaign. The incidents have been linked to different groups with different motives, from North Korean state hackers stealing crypto to criminals demanding ransoms.

What they do share is a trend security experts have warned about for months: AI tools that are making hacking faster and cheaper.

Last week, cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike reported that a China-linked group had used AI agents to target more than 200 organisations in at least 14 countries in just 11 days.

What it means for Irish banks

In July, the ECB ordered the banks it directly supervises, including Ireland’s biggest lenders, to submit plans by October 31 to defend against AI-powered cyberattacks.

The ECB told Extra.ie that every one of those banks submitted its plan on time. Its supervisory teams are now assessing the plans.

The ECB also pointed to figures suggesting the volume of cyberattacks on European banks may be levelling off, though it remains high. In the European Banking Authority’s latest risk survey, the share of banks reporting at least one successful cyberattack that caused a major IT incident fell from 35% to 28%. The share hit by 11 or more attacks fell from 10% to 7%.

According to the ECB, denial-of-service attacks are the most common threat, and ransomware is among the most damaging. Growing reliance on outside IT providers and the malicious use of AI add to the risks.

Since January 2025, banks across the EU have had to report major IT incidents under a single set of rules, which the ECB monitors.

Ireland’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) said its assessment remains that ‘cybercrime is the most significant cyber security threat to Irish organisations and citizens, while geopolitical tensions and state-aligned cyber activity continue to create a complex and evolving risk environment’.

It added: ‘Artificial intelligence (AI) is reshaping the cyber security landscape, increasing the speed and sophistication of threats such as phishing, social engineering and vulnerability discovery, while also enhancing defensive capabilities.’

The NCSC also pointed to the recent wave of attacks on internet-connected equipment, such as the supermarket fridges hacked across Ireland and Europe.

It said: ‘Recent incidents involving internet-connected operational technology (OT) highlight the need to extend cyber security beyond traditional IT environments.’

At the IMF meetings in Bangkok in October, IMF chief Kristalina Georgieva warned that if fraud kept growing at its current speed and scale, ‘we may end up with lots of people with shoeboxes under their beds’.

How to protect yourself

For most people, the bigger risk is not a bank being drained but what comes next. Scammers often use stolen personal details in follow-up scam calls and texts.

Your bank will never ask for your full PIN, password or one-time security codes by phone, text or email. It will never ask you to move money to a ‘safe account’.

Turn on app notifications, so you see every payment as it happens.

If a message or call worries you, hang up and ring your bank on the number on the back of your card.

Report any suspected fraud to your bank straight away.