Personal Information of 186 Bank of Korea Employees Leaked... 135 Hacking Attempts This ...

Data Submitted by Assemblyman Lee's Office From May 9 to June 8 of This Year Massive Leak Includes Phone Numbers and Encrypted Passwords

It was belatedly revealed that the personal information of 186 employees of the Bank of Korea, including their names, details, and encrypted passwords, was leaked in an external hacking incident.

According to materials submitted by the office of Assemblyman Lee Jongwook, a member of the National Assembly's Strategy and Finance Committee, which were received from the Bank of Korea on September 28th, an illegal intrusion occurred on GitHub, a system used by a personal information processing subcontractor for the bank's online training program, between May 9 and June 8 this year.

During this process, the personal information of 186 Bank of Korea employees, as well as members from other client companies of the subcontractor, was leaked en masse. The leaked information included not only basic details such as names, company names, job titles, and work descriptions, but also email addresses, phone numbers, and encrypted passwords.

The Bank of Korea explained, "The subcontractor notified us of the leak on June 11," adding, "The following day, we informed the affected employees of the data breach and reported the incident to the Personal Information Protection Commission."

The Bank of Korea has experienced instances of personal information exposure, including one on June 23, 2023. At that time, an application submitted by a candidate for a statistical survey assistant position—which included the candidate's name, date of birth, address, information, academic and work history, self-introduction, and motivation for applying—was exposed on the bank's website. The file was deleted the day, and the candidate was notified.

Direct hacking attempts against the Bank of Korea continue to occur. From January to August of this year, there were a total of 135 hacking attempts on the bank, 4.5 times more than the total for the year (30 attempts). There were 125 instances of unauthorized access attempts and 10 cases involving malicious code.

From 2021 through August of this year, there have been a total of 2,063 hacking attempts: 1,557 cases in 2021, 192 cases in 2022, 97 cases in 2023, and 52 cases in 2024. Unauthorized access attempts were the most frequent, with 1,951 cases, followed by 95 cases involving malicious code, 16 cases of information gathering, and one case of a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack.

The primary targets of these attacks have been the bank's main website, the economic statistics portal, the electronic library, and other systems operated over the Internet.

During the same period, there were 39 hacking attempts originating from within Korea and 2,024 from abroad. By country, most hacking attempts were traced to Brazil (499 cases), the United States (470 cases), Russia (162 cases), China (126 cases), Iran (115 cases), India (58 cases), and Vietnam (51 cases). Hot Picks Today [Exclusive] "Is Bureaucratic Discretion Above the Law?" Application Denied at One Word...Will This 68-Year-Old Law Finally Change? [Exclusive] Why Are Turnovers So High? "A 10 Million Won Base Salary Gap at the Same Workplace" [National Pension Staff Shortage]② "My Pants Keep Tearing at Work"... The Birth of 'Special Pants' from a Single "All This for a Photo"... Tourists Write 'SOS' on Beach After Getting Trapped by High Tide "I Thought Everyone Was Heading to Japan"... The Top Overseas Travel Destination for Chuseok Was This Unexpected Country Assemblyman Lee stressed, "The Bank of Korea, as the nation's central bank, must not take lightly the leakage of employee personal information and repeated website access disruptions." He emphasized, "It is essential to thoroughly analyze the causes of these incidents, review the entire security system, and establish measures to prevent recurrence." View original image

During the same period, there were 39 hacking attempts originating from within Korea and 2,024 from abroad. By country, most hacking attempts were traced to Brazil (499 cases), the United States (470 cases), Russia (162 cases), China (126 cases), Iran (115 cases), India (58 cases), and Vietnam (51 cases).

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Assemblyman Lee stressed, "The Bank of Korea, as the nation's central bank, must not take lightly the leakage of employee personal information and repeated website access disruptions." He emphasized, "It is essential to thoroughly analyze the causes of these incidents, review the entire security system, and establish measures to prevent recurrence."