South Korean banks have been subjected to an average of nearly 600 cyberattacks per day since 2017, with China being the chief country where attacks are originating from, says South Korea’s Financial Services Commission (FSC).
A recent FSC report disclosed by South Korean National Assembly member Kang Min-Kook showed that from 2017 to 2021, 17 banks in South Korea were subjected to 1,091,606 cyberattacks, averaging 598 attacks per day with at least a third coming from China, according to Yonhap News Agency.
The report said the FSC data only covers financial institutions providing retail banking services. If it was to include savings banks, insurance companies, or other financial institutions, the number of recorded cyberattacks would be far higher.
According to the FSC data, 82.2 percent of the cyberattacks came from foreign IP addresses, of which 34.7 percent came from China and 11.2 percent from the United States. The rest came from India, France, and other countries.
The annual number of cyberattacks increased from 63,000 in 2017 to over 273,000 in 2021, growing more than four times over five years.
However, the banks did not suffer a meaningful breach despite the frequent cyberattacks as their internal security systems effectively blocked the malicious codes and separated the computer networks, the FSC report said.
“Although there has yet to be a breach, the cyberattacks are showing an increasing trend,” Kang said. “Just one breach can incur an enormous loss. The risk cannot be overlooked.”
In July 2021, NATO members, the European Union, Australia, New Zealand, and Japan condemned the Chinese regime for a hefty cyberattack on Microsoft Exchange email servers earlier that year.
