Cyber Crisis Alert Level Raised to 'Interest'

[Asia Economy Reporter Seulgina Jo] The Ministry of Science and ICT announced on the 4th at 11:30 AM that it has raised the cyber crisis alert level from Normal to Attention.

This measure comes in response to the recent increase in ransomware infections and damages targeting domestic and international companies, as well as malware infections in software (SW) developers and web hosting providers. The Ministry of Science and ICT judged that proactive defense is necessary as cyber threats targeting companies and the public, including phishing related to disaster relief funds, are on the rise. The cyber crisis alert levels are classified as ‘Normal → Attention → Caution → Alert → Severe.’

In particular, with the recent increase in text notifications related to the 5th disaster relief fund, smishing damages are also expected to rise. Therefore, careful attention is required when clicking on internet addresses (URLs) to verify whether they are smishing messages.

Following the elevation of the crisis alert to ‘Attention,’ the Korea Internet & Security Agency’s Internet Incident Response Center has entered an emergency operation system. It plans to expand overall monitoring of cyber threats such as malware distribution and DDoS attacks and strengthen response posture through enhanced cooperation with related organizations.

The Ministry of Science and ICT emphasized rechecking the safety of backup data, such as conducting offline backups of important corporate data, to prevent ransomware damage, and urged companies to strengthen security measures for PCs and servers. It also requested immediate reporting in case of ransomware damage (without area code, dial 118 or use the dedicated ransomware website).