Hacking Damage Spreads from Major Banks to Savings Banks and Consumer Finance Firms

Hacking damage has now been confirmed at savings banks and capital companies (consumer finance firms), expanding the scope of the financial sector's security breach.

Yegaram Savings Bank, a Taekwang Group affiliate ranked in the top ten among savings banks, detected signs of a personal data leak on February 28 and immediately suspended related services, posting an apology on its website on the night of March 2. The breach is believed to have affected around 40,000 people, with names, dates of birth, and contact details compromised. However, the bank only sent notification texts to customers on March 3—three days after discovering the leak.

The attack is believed to have targeted vulnerabilities in remote access programs used by employees, and evidence of AI tools being used was detected once again. It remains unclear whether the same hackers behind the bank attacks were involved. Kim Jong-in, a professor at Korea University's Graduate School of Information Security, pointed out that while impossible for a human, AI can attack every financial institution within minutes, noting that it is outpacing existing defense methods in terms of speed.

Around the same time, Hyundai Capital was also attacked through the website accessed by its loan consultants, leaking the names, resident registration numbers, and contact details of 146 mortgage brokers. Following Shinhan, KB Kookmin, Hana, and Busan Bank, damage has now been confirmed at savings banks and specialized credit finance companies as well.

Meanwhile, all financial companies are checking their systems against a checklist distributed by the Financial Security Institute to determine whether further damage has occurred. The Financial Services Commission plans to hold an emergency review meeting on March 4, chaired by Chairman Lee Eok-won and attended by the CEOs of affected financial firms as well as the heads of all financial industry associations.