▲ Bank of Korea
Amid a series of large-scale cyberattacks targeting major domestic commercial banks and the financial sector, hacking attempts directed at state-run policy banks and the Bank of Korea have also surged annually, reaching a record high this year.
According to data submitted by the Bank of Korea, the Export-Import Bank of Korea, the Korea Development Bank, and the Industrial Bank of Korea to Representative Kang Min-guk of the People Power Party, a member of the National Assembly's Strategy and Finance Committee, on October 11, no security breaches caused by hacking occurred at the four banks from 2020 through September of this year, but hacking attempts totaled 4,986,964.
Looking at the trend by year, the increase is clear.
The number grew from 358,800 in 2020 to 564,430 in 2021, 585,563 in 2022, 738,312 in 2023, 780,524 in 2024, and 934,858 in 2025.
This year, attempts already reached 1,024,478 through September.
By bank, the Industrial Bank of Korea accounted for an overwhelming majority with 4.584 million attempts (91.9%), followed by the Korea Development Bank with 399,379, the Bank of Korea with 3,076, and the Export-Import Bank of Korea with 510.
The Industrial Bank of Korea explained the high number of hacking attempts by stating, "As we provide internet and mobile services for individual and corporate customers on par with commercial banks, a relatively high number of hacking attempts are being detected."
The Gyeonggi IT Center, which houses the main computer servers of the Bank of Korea, has experienced 145 hacking intrusion attempts to date, less than a year after its establishment in October of last year.
By type of hacking attack, denial-of-service attacks, which make normal service impossible by having one or more users monopolize or destroy system resources, were the most frequent at 2,275,006 (45.6%).
These were followed by information-gathering attacks with 866,776, malicious code attacks with 475,026, and unauthorized access attempts with 456,783.
Representative Kang Min-guk said, "Hacking of policy banks does not stop at simple personal information leaks; it can disrupt domestic and international financial systems and jeopardize sensitive government and corporate information as well." He added, "We must establish information protection systems to prepare for rapidly increasing AI-utilized cyberattacks and prepare double and triple defenses in cooperation with financial authorities, such as conducting hacking-simulation drills."
(Photo: Yonhap News)
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