Hacking attempts targeting court network in S. Korea spike this year

Seoul: About 240,000 hacking attempts targeting the court network were reported between January and August this year, about 2.4 times the figure from the same period last year, court data showed on Sunday.

According to the National Court Administration data submitted to Rep. Kim Dong-ha of the ruling Democratic Party, hacking attempts totalled 239,145 cases over this period, compared with 101,205 cases during the same period last year and 141,528 cases for all of last year, reports Yonhap news agency.

By month, March saw the highest number of such attempts with 48,263 cases, followed by May with 39,915 cases and June with 34,083 cases. The annual totals in recent years were 142,514 in 2021, 126,212 in 2022, 114,070 in 2023 and 98,171 cases in 2024, according to the data.

The financial watchdog will hold an emergency meeting with heads of a number of banks and financial firms that suffered information leaks via recent hacking attacks, sources said.

Financial Services Commission Chairman Lee Eog-weon will preside over the meeting on Sunday afternoon with the chief executive officers of the affected firms, with the meeting expected to focus on responses, according to the sources.

The meeting comes as several financial firms have suffered back-to-back leaks of customer and other information in hacking, including Hana Bank, KB Kookmin Bank and Shinhan Bank.

The financial watchdog had previously planned the meeting for Wednesday but moved it forward to Sunday as the damage spread to other financial institutions over the past few days.

Meanwhile, the financial regulator has instructed financial firms to examine their computer security systems over a series of cyberattacks on major banks that leaked personal information of clients.

The instruction by the Financial Services Commission came after personal information of 89 customers has been leaked from Hana Bank, in the latest data leak surrounding the nation's financial institutions.

The personal information, including resident registration numbers, names, addresses and phone numbers, was leaked in a hacking attack, Hana Bank said earlier in the day.

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