Policy bank hacking attempts top 1 million this year, a record high

[Financial News] As large-scale cyberattacks targeting the financial sector, including commercial banks, continue, hacking attempts against policy banks and the Bank of Korea have also surged year after year, reaching a record high this year, data show.
According to data submitted by the Bank of Korea, the Export-Import Bank of Korea, the Korea Development Bank and the Industrial Bank of Korea to Rep. Kang Min-guk of the People Power Party, a member of the National Assembly’s Finance and Economy Planning Committee, on the 11th, there were 4,986,964 hacking attempts against the four banks from 2020 through September this year. Fortunately, no actual breaches resulting from hacking occurred.
The number of hacking attempts has shown a clear upward trend each year. It rose steadily from 358,800 in 2020 to 564,430 in 2021, 585,563 in 2022, 738,312 in 2023, 780,524 in 2024 and 934,858 in 2025. This year, in particular, 1,024,478 attempts had been recorded by September alone, already far exceeding one million.
By bank, the Industrial Bank of Korea accounted for the overwhelming majority, with 4,584,000 attempts, or 91.9% of the total. It was followed by the Korea Development Bank with 399,379, the Bank of Korea with 3,076 and the Export-Import Bank of Korea with 510. The Industrial Bank of Korea said it was relatively more likely to be targeted by cyberattacks because it provides customer-facing internet and mobile banking services at a level similar to those of commercial banks.
The Bank of Korea’s main computing server, the Gyeonggi IT Center, which began operating last October, was found to have been targeted in 145 attempted cyber intrusions less than a year after its establishment.
By type, denial-of-service (DoS) attacks, which monopolize system resources and disrupt normal services, accounted for the largest share, with 2,275,006 cases (45.6%). They were followed by 866,776 information-gathering attacks, 475,026 cases involving malware and 456,783 attempts at unauthorized access.
Rep. Kang’s side pointed out that hacking of policy banks could cause serious crises beyond the simple leakage of personal information, including disruption of domestic and international financial systems and the exposure of sensitive government and corporate secrets. It also called for the urgent establishment of multilayered defenses, including strengthening information security systems and conducting drills in coordination with financial authorities, to prepare for new types of cyberattacks using artificial intelligence (AI). 

[email protected] Kim Dong-gyu Reporter