After banks and insurers, data leaks have spread to securities firms and a crypto exchange, the Kyunghyang Shinmun reported on the 28th. According to the paper, the number of affected financial firms rose to 20 as of the 28th, and experts advised changing passwords quickly to prevent secondary damage.
The Kyunghyang Shinmun said incidents have continued since the end of last month, and after Mirae Asset Life on the 26th the leaks have now reached the securities industry and an exchange. Daishin Securities was found to have had the personal data of 38,490 customers leaked on the 17th. The eight items include names, emails, addresses, telecom IDs, bank names and account numbers, of which account and mobile numbers were reportedly encrypted.
광고 문의 · 300×250Bithumb and an asset manager
At Bithumb, signs were confirmed on the 27th that employee information had leaked in a hack targeting its internal mobile system. Whether customer data also leaked is under investigation, the paper said. At Mirae Asset Global Investments, abnormal access from an outside IP to a business web system was found and the route was blocked; some business information leaked but customer credit information appears not to have.
On the course of events, the Kyunghyang Shinmun reported that the Financial Supervisory Service said it detected scan-type access attempts against the financial sector from many North Korean IPs starting at 3 a.m. on the 21st, about 4.4 million attempts by then. However, a direct link between individual leaks and those attempts was not shown in what was checked for this article, and authorities are still working out the course of events.
Passwords and preventing secondary harm
Experts warn that most secondary damage comes from voice phishing and smishing. Because scammers may cite a customer's financial details, people should not comply with calls or texts impersonating financial firms that ask for passwords, verification codes, deposits or app installs. The guidance is to delete suspicious texts without tapping their links.
Prof. Kwon Heon-young of Korea University said leaked passwords are mostly encrypted and unlikely to be exposed as they are, but simple or reused passwords are safer changed, the paper wrote. If the same password is used on several sites, make each different and turn on two-factor authentication. Authorities advised checking for unknown accounts through the ‘My Accounts at a Glance’ service and using the financial transaction safety block service.
