The Daishin Securities data leak has exposed personal information belonging to 38,490 customers, prompting renewed concerns over cybersecurity at South Korean financial institutions.
The brokerage disclosed the incident on Wednesday after detecting signs of unauthorised access by hackers last week, Yonhap News Agency reported.
The compromised information included customers’ names, email addresses and mobile phone numbers. The company did not provide further details about the incident in the report.
South Korea plans cybersecurity inspections
The data breach comes as the South Korean government prepares large-scale vulnerability inspections of around 170 key information technology infrastructures in the private sector.
The Ministry of Science and ICT will assess security vulnerabilities at 111 public organisations managing such infrastructure, with particular attention to internet-connected systems, including websites and publicly accessible servers.
The inspections are expected to conclude by the end of 2026, according to an official cited in the report.
The government is expanding its response amid a series of cybersecurity incidents involving public institutions and financial companies.
Cyberattacks reported at 16 commercial banks
A total of 16 commercial banks in South Korea reported cyberattacks that resulted in customer data breaches this year, according to the report.
President Lee Jae Myung has expressed concern over the incidents and called for cybersecurity measures suited to the artificial intelligence era.
The latest breach at Daishin Securities adds to the pressure on financial institutions to strengthen their systems and protect customer information.
South Korea raises cyber crisis warning level
South Korea’s science ministry has raised the country’s cyber crisis warning level to ‘caution’, the second-lowest level in its four-tier system.
The change took effect at noon on Wednesday as authorities responded to two critical vulnerabilities involving PHP, a programming language widely used to power websites.
Companies and government agencies have been asked to update their systems and apply security patches.
Science Minister Bae Kyung-hoon said the vulnerabilities could affect numerous websites and required urgent action because exploit code had already become publicly available.
The warning followed reports that government agencies and companies worldwide had shut down websites because of the flaws. Cybersecurity firm Wiz, whose researchers helped identify the vulnerabilities, described them as among the most severe flaws detected using artificial intelligence.
The incidents highlight the growing cybersecurity challenges facing financial institutions, businesses and public infrastructure as authorities respond to emerging threats.
