South Korea's financial sector hit by successive cyberattacks, regulators demand comprehensive inspection

PANews reported on October 4, citing Jinshi, that after a series of cyberattacks led to personal data leaks in South Korea's financial sector, the country's financial regulators urged financial institutions to complete internal security inspections as soon as possible and report the results to regulators. Financial Services Commission (FSC) Chairman Lee Eog-weon said in a statement after an emergency meeting with executives of financial institutions and industry associations on Sunday: "The entire financial industry should carry out security inspections quickly and thoroughly."

Lee Eog-weon said preliminary investigations showed that some of the attacks targeted external websites with weaker monitoring, as well as servers used by loan agents and employees. He also said regulators could not rule out the possibility that artificial intelligence was used in the attacks, and called for accelerating the construction of security systems capable of "defending against AI attacks with AI." South Korean President Lee Jae-myung has been briefed on the data leak incidents and response measures. A presidential spokesperson said the president attaches "great importance" to the matter and has instructed relevant departments to conduct a thorough investigation and formulate response measures.