Eun Sung-soo, Chairman of the Financial Services Commission, is holding a financial market inspection meeting at the Government Seoul Office in Jongno-gu, Seoul on the 4th.
[Asia Economy Reporter Jo Gang-wook] Financial authorities have recently been checking the security management status of financial institutions and demanding supplementary measures in response to the continuous DDoS attacks by international hacking groups amid the ongoing incidents.
The Financial Services Commission (FSC) announced on the 4th that it held a meeting chaired by Eun Sung-wi, the FSC Chairman, to inspect the computer security management status of financial institutions during the Chuseok holiday period. The meeting was attended by FSC officials including Chairman Eun, as well as related organizations such as the Korea Exchange and the Financial Security Institute.
The FSC stated that although there were attempts of DDoS attacks targeting some financial institutions during the holiday period, they responded according to the prepared procedures, and no significant damage occurred.
Earlier, on the 21st of last month, the FSC strengthened the reporting and dissemination system among the FSC, Financial Supervisory Service, Financial Security Institute, and financial companies in case of intrusion incidents such as DDoS, ransomware, and ATM hacking attacks.
Accordingly, related organizations including the Financial Security Institute plan to continue efforts to strengthen cybersecurity in the financial sector to respond to additional DDoS attacks and other risk factors in the future.
They also checked risk factors related to the recent computer failure at the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE).
On the 1st, during the holiday period, the Tokyo Stock Exchange’s stock trading system experienced a failure, causing the suspension of stock trading and the halt of related index calculations (Nikkei 225, TOPIX) on the same day. However, since trading resumed normally the next day (October 2), it is expected that there will be no direct impact on domestic financial transactions after the holiday.
The Korea Exchange (KRX) stated at the meeting that its trading system is composed of a triple backup system, which is equipped to handle the type of system error that occurred at the Tokyo Stock Exchange. Ahead of the market opening on the 5th, the Korea Exchange, Koscom, and member securities firms conducted a joint system inspection on October 4 to recheck the safety of the domestic stock market’s computer system.
The FSC demanded that financial companies thoroughly prepare supplementary measures such as strengthening security management of PCs used for telecommuting (two-factor authentication, document encryption, etc.) and reinforcing internal controls over telecommuters’ access procedures to internal business networks, so that the cyberattack response system is not weakened due to the rationalization of network separation regulations related to telecommuting.
Additionally, to systematically respond to international DDoS attacks, cooperation systems with related organizations such as Internet Service Providers (ISP) and the Korea Internet & Security Agency (KISA) will also be strengthened.
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