Science ministry tightens cyber response after bank hacks

The science ministry said Tuesday it has activated an emergency cyber response system with the Korea Internet & Security Agency after a run of hacking incidents at South Korean financial companies.

The Korea Internet Security Center, or KISC, has strengthened monitoring of corporate websites, added incident-response personnel and placed emergency dispatch teams on standby around the clock.

Threat information is being distributed through the KISC's cyber threat analysis and sharing system, which has about 5,900 member companies, and with inspection recommendation emails sent to some 28,000 companies.

The response follows an intrusion at Shinhan Bank. The Financial Services Commission, the Financial Supervisory Service and the Korea Financial Security Institute began an on-site investigation the same day the incident was reported on Sept. 30, and further reports from financial companies followed.

The Financial Services Commission said the three bodies are examining the cause and scope of the damage and investigating the later reports. "Financial security is no longer a matter of protecting the computer systems of individual financial companies," said Lee Eok-won, chairman of the Financial Services Commission. "We need to recognize once again that it is the foundation of trust and stability for the financial industry, allowing people to use financial services with confidence."

Lee said at the meeting that as financial digitization and service links between companies expand, a security weakness at one company can grow into a risk for the entire sector, and that the whole financial industry must re-examine its information security systems from the ground up and raise security levels a notch. He added that the government will analyze the types and damage patterns of the recent intrusions to identify regulatory improvements and prevent public harm from spreading.

The three bodies are working with the science ministry and the KISC, which will keep specialist staff available at the scene and coordinate with the police and the Personal Information Protection Commission.

At an emergency meeting of the entire financial sector at the Government Complex Seoul on Oct. 4, chaired by Lee, financial companies were told to report the results of their own inspections of external access points, authentication and access controls, to confirm that circulated threat information such as attacker IP addresses had been reflected in their detection systems, and to strengthen measures against secondary harm such as voice phishing and smishing. The government also called on the financial sector to shift to AI-based security systems, including rebuilding security frameworks on zero-trust principles, to counter hacking methods that exploit new attack patterns and unexpected vulnerabilities.