Second Wave of Cyberattacks on the Financial Sector in South Korea

The financial sector in South Korea has faced a second wave of cyberattacks in about a month amid a series of breaches across Asia, heightening concerns that artificial intelligence is facilitating large-scale hacking. This was reported by Bloomberg.

The head of the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS), Lee Chang-jin, stated on Wednesday that some major Korean investment firms were subjected to large-scale hacking on Tuesday. He urged the industry to strengthen security without naming the affected companies.

Among the organizations reporting unauthorized access are Mirae Asset Global Investments and Daishin Securities. The South Korean president's administration will hold an emergency meeting on the hacking, Yonhap reported.

What is known about the leaks

Daishin Securities reported that personal and credit data of 38,490 clients were leaked. Suspicious access was detected on October 17 to a server supporting remote account opening. The investigation revealed that clients' names, emails, physical addresses, as well as encrypted account and phone numbers were exposed. The broker found no evidence of subsequent damage to clients or unauthorized access to key business systems.

Mirae Asset Global, which had $461 billion in assets under management at the end of September, reported unauthorized access to part of its work web systems. Retail investor information was not affected as these systems do not serve them; there are no financial losses, and the main systems and servers are operating normally.

The cryptocurrency exchange Bithumb also discovered unauthorized access to its internal mobile group interaction system on Tuesday, Yonhap reports. The exchange is investigating the extent of the leak, including possible disclosure of client data.