South Korea’s financial authorities were on heightened alert for a possible cyberattack from North Korea’s military hackers, calling an emergency meeting Thursday of representatives from the public and private sectors.

At the meeting, Jung Eun-bo, vice chief of the watchdog Financial Services Commission called on institutions to guard against hacking attempts, warning that holes in the their fence could invite hackers and result in massive losses to financial consumers. 


“If a financial institution is found to be blamable for a breach, we will sternly deal with it, reprimanding the CEO,” he told participants.

The meeting, which came after a two-day spot inspection on major financial intuitions Tuesday and Wednesday, was attended by 16 commercial banks, as well as the bourse operator Korea Exchange, Korea Financial Security Institute and Korea Financial Telecommunications & Clearings Institute.

The heightened alert comes after hacking attacks in late February on several South Korean providers of Internet banking security solutions, for which Seoul’s intelligence pointed fingers at North Korea.

The state-run Korea Financial Security Institute said it will conduct anti-hacking drills with over 190 local financial institutions, starting from Friday.



By Lee Sun-young (milaya@heraldcorp.com)