Government Inspects Security at Some 170 Key Facilities Including Telecom, IDCs Amid Continued Hacking

▲ ATMs at a bank in Seoul

Following a recent series of personal data leaks at financial and public institutions, the government has launched security vulnerability inspections on around 170 key private information and communications infrastructure facilities.

According to government authorities on the 28th, the Ministry of Science and ICT is pushing forward with security vulnerability inspections targeting 111 organizations that manage key private-sector information and communications infrastructure.

The facilities targeted are estimated to be around 172 in total.

This inspection follows the president's order to review and reinforce security systems across the nation's core infrastructure, prompted by consecutive cyber intrusion and personal data leak incidents at financial and public institutions.

Key information and communications infrastructure facilities are core IT systems that, if compromised, could have a critical impact on national security, the economy, and society. They are designated and managed under the Information and Communications Infrastructure Protection Act.

In the private sector, this includes wired and wireless communication services of the three major telecom companies—SK Telecom, KT, and LG Uplus—as well as systems related to Internet Data Centers (IDCs).

The inspection is particularly focused on thoroughly examining the management status of internet-facing assets, such as servers and web pages exposed to the external internet, along with vulnerabilities in the attack surface.

This takes into consideration the possibility that internet-facing assets, which financial companies failed to properly identify or manage during recent financial sector data leak incidents, may have been exploited as intrusion pathways.

Even previously, management institutions of key information and communications infrastructure have annually conducted self-assessments of vulnerabilities, established protective measures, and submitted them to their respective supervising ministries. The government has managed this by formulating protection plans based on these submissions and checking implementation.

The Ministry of Science and ICT plans to collect consent forms, current status of targeted facilities, and self-assessment checklists from each management institution by the end of this month, and wrap up verification and inspection of the self-assessment results as early as next month or by the end of this year at the latest.

(Photo: Yonhap News)

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