Hacking attempts on South Korea state banks and BOK top 1 million this year

Attempts to hack state-run banks and the Bank of Korea have surpassed 1 million so far this year.

According to materials submitted by the Export-Import Bank of Korea, Korea Development Bank, Industrial Bank of Korea (IBK), and the Bank of Korea to Rep. Kang Min-kuk of the National Assembly's Planning and Finance Committee from the People Power Party on the 11th, hacking attempts targeting these institutions from 2020 through September this year totaled 4,986,964.

Industrial Bank of Korea (IBK) accounted for 4,584,000, or 91.9% of the total. It was followed by Korea Development Bank with 399,379, the Bank of Korea with 3,076, and the Export-Import Bank of Korea with 510. IBK provides internet and mobile financial services for individual and corporate customers, which appears to have led to a relatively high number of detected hacking attempts.

At the Gyeonggi IT Center, where the Bank of Korea's computer servers are located, 145 hacking attempts have also been detected so far. By type of attack, denial-of-service attacks were most common at 2,275,006 (45.6%). They were followed by information-gathering attacks at 866,776, malware attacks at 475,026, and unauthorized access attempts at 456,783.

However, no actual hacking breaches occurred at the four banks during this period.

Kang said, "Hacks on state-run banks can lead to disruption of domestic and international financial systems and leaks of information from the government and corporations," adding, "We need to build information security systems to prepare for AI-driven cyberattacks and strengthen drills in cooperation with financial authorities."