Hacking Targeting Military Expected to Reach Record High This Year... Direct Infiltration of Homepage

Over 10,000 Hacking Cases by September
Evolving Methods Including Use of Foreign IPs

The number of hacking attempts targeting our military is expected to reach a record high this year. As North Korea increasingly uses sophisticated cyber techniques to steal funds and information, there are calls for even more thorough preparedness.

According to the "Status of Internet Network Intrusion Attempts Targeting the Military in the Last 5 Years (2019?September 2023)" submitted by the Ministry of National Defense to the National Assembly on the 30th, the number of hacking attempts, which was 12,696 in 2020, decreased to 11,600 in 2021 and 9,021 last year. However, as of September this year, it has risen again to 10,335. If this trend continues, the military authorities expect the number of hacking attempts this year to set an all-time high.

The hacking methods have also changed. While the number of hacking attempts via malware or emails has decreased, attempts to directly breach websites have increased. Hacking via malware reached 89 cases in 2019 but dropped to only 1 case this year. The number of hacking emails also decreased every year from 109 cases in 2019 to just 16 cases this year.

On the other hand, cases of directly infiltrating websites have increased sharply, from 8,923 in 2019 to 10,318 this year. The military authorities believe that as countermeasures against malware and hacking attempts have been established, hackers are now directly targeting websites.

The military believes that hacking actors, including North Korea, are using servers from various countries, and an investigation into Internet Protocol (IP) status revealed new countries appearing each year. Analyzing the ranking of IP intrusions by country, the UK ranked 5th in 2019, Taiwan 3rd in 2020, India 5th in 2021, and Brazil 4th last year. This year, Singapore accounted for 3.7% of all intrusion IPs, ranking 5th. However, the number of countries involved is decreasing. From 185 countries in 2020, the number has declined annually to 164 countries this year.

A military official said, "Due to the nature of cyber threats, it is not possible to specify the threat actors, but it is analyzed that as various cyber countermeasures have been established within the military, the hacking methods and the countries of the IPs used have diversified."