Banks, broadcasters bracing for more cyber attacks

Banks and major broadcasters restored most of their computer networks Thursday after suffering a major hacking attack Wednesday. They remained vigilant, however, over the possibility of another attack by forming an emergency task force to comb through their IT systems and firewalls.

○ Preventing another attack

Nonghyup, which saw 30 percent of its ATMs frozen Wednesday, arranged some 1,000 staff from its IT department and network maintenance service providers to perform overnight repair work and resumed operations except its 10 branches across the country. Shinhan Bank, which repaired its system in two hours Wednesday, saw business as usual.

The cyber attack has had a lingering effect on major broadcasters. KBS repaired its key network Thursday morning but the PCs of some 5,000 employees were not working. “It will take some time until the damaged computers are repaired and business is completely back to normal,” the network said. MBC saw some 800 computers break down, and 24-hour news channel YTN had some 300 PCs damaged and more than five servers down.

Broadcasters are trying to prevent another cyber attack. The information structure department, an in-house unit, is discussing blocking another attack. The plan is to strengthen its security system such as firewalls and anti-hacking programs, and increase prevention and monitoring activities by building an emergency alert system with the cyber security center of the Korea Communications Commission and the cyber investigation team of the National Police Agency.

○ Screening security status in financial sector.

The Strategy and Finance Ministry and the Bank of Korea’s foreign currency dealing room and financial settlement network were safe from Wednesday’s attack. Kang Tae-soo, a deputy governor at the Bank of Korea said, “Should our financial network have been affected, it could`ve caused a big problem. Fortunately, we use a different server and are safe from hacking attacks.”

The Financial Supervisory Service said it will start screening the security status in the financial sector in the wake of the cyber attack. “We`ll look at if financial companies are investing enough human and material resources for IT security,” said Choi Soo-hyun, the chief of the Financial Supervisory Service. “We’ll particularly pay attention to the `5-percent rule.`” His remark referred to a requirement that a financial company with an IT department must hire more than 5 percent of staff for IT, and that 5 percent of IT personnel must be security experts.

Warnings of the risk of advanced persistent threats, or APT, against financial institutions are said to have floated about from last year. In a report released last year, the Financial Security Agency said “Financial institutions are under a series of attacks including APT with an average of 11.8 times per day (as of 2011). They need to take a proactive approach.”

crystal@donga.com