Following SGI Seoul Guarantee, Welcome Financial Group has also been targeted by a ransomware hacking attack, raising concerns about cybersecurity in the financial sector. As financial authorities have threatened to impose 'penalty surcharges' in the event of major security incidents, financial institutions and public financial institutions are accelerating their efforts to enhance security capabilities.
According to the financial sector on the 20th, the Industrial Bank of Korea will initiate the automation of responses to cyber attacks and the establishment of an integrated security monitoring system. The primary focus of the project is to replace the security monitoring system that detects cyber attack attempts such as malware distribution, hacking, and internal information leakage, and to create a system that automatically blocks detected attacks. By implementing an automation system utilizing artificial intelligence (AI), security threats can be quickly intercepted in real time.
IBK Systems, the information technology affiliate of the Industrial Bank of Korea, plans to select a security solution provider and complete the system construction by the first half of next year. The bank noted, 'Attacks targeting major institutions, including public and financial sectors by international hacking groups, are ongoing, making prompt detection and response essential when hacking threats arise,' adding, 'The goal is to enhance the speed of responding to cyber intrusion incidents and strengthen security.'
The Korea Inclusive Finance Agency (KINFA), which provides policy low-income finance products, will also enhance its security monitoring capabilities to strengthen its cyber crisis response system. KINFA announced a bidding notice on the 18th for selecting a specialized security monitoring company. The agency plans to outsource tasks such as operating the security monitoring system and initial response to security incidents, along with supporting specialist personnel. KINFA stated, 'This is to protect the assets of the institution from increasingly intelligent and sophisticated cyber attacks,' adding, 'We will minimize damage and enable early detection of intrusion incidents through a monitoring system that operates 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.'
The acceleration of security capability enhancement in the financial sector is driven by the rapid increase in cyber threat incidents. SGI Seoul Guarantee suffered a ransomware hacking attack on the 14th of last month, leading to a failure in its information system. A subsidiary of Welcome Financial Group, Wellex FN&I Lend, has also recently faced a ransomware attack from a hacker organization and is checking whether customer information has been leaked. The Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) initiated an investigation related to the information system failure incident at SGI Seoul Guarantee on the 18th and has dispatched personnel to Wellex FN&I Lend to assess the overall situation of the incident.
The fact that financial authorities have pulled out the 'penalty surcharge' card also had an impact. Currently, penalty surcharges are imposed only when secondary damages such as information leakage occur due to security incidents like hacking. Financial authorities held a 'Financial Sector Incident Response Readiness Meeting' on the 30th of last month and indicated that they could also consider imposing penalty surcharges if security incidents undermine trust or disrupt services.
A financial sector official stated, 'Hacker organizations are indiscriminately spreading malware,' adding, 'Financial institutions with outdated or vulnerable security systems could easily face breaches of their internal networks, making preparedness more critical than ever.'
☞ Ransomware
Ransomware is a portmanteau of ransom and software, referring to malicious programs that lock down systems or encrypt data, making them unusable, and then demand money as a hostage.