Two major churches in South Korea, Yoido Full Gospel Church and Sarang Church in Seocho District, have fallen victim to cyber attacks.
According to Yonhap News Agency, on October 6, the cyber threat intelligence firm Oasis Security analyzed attack tools, records, and account information obtained from foreign attacker servers, identifying a large-scale data breach involving two prominent religious institutions in the country.
The affected churches are Yoido Full Gospel Church in Seoul and Sarang Church in Seocho District. Yoido Full Gospel Church reported that its internal analysis suggests a potential leak of names and birth dates of 850,000 members.
Yoido Full Gospel Church stated, "We recently received a notification from the Korea Internet & Security Agency regarding suspected personal information leaks related to the church's information systems, and we are currently verifying the facts with relevant authorities and security experts."
The church added, "We take this matter very seriously and will actively cooperate with the investigation and verification process by the relevant authorities. Additionally, we will do our utmost to prevent such incidents from recurring by reviewing and enhancing our overall information protection system."
Sarang Church also reported discovering signs of a potential data breach and has formed an emergency task force. They are in the process of reporting to relevant authorities while taking measures to understand the situation and prevent further damage.
Following a series of hacking incidents affecting major banks, including Shinhan Bank, KB Kookmin, Hana, and BNK banks, concerns are rising that cyber attacks may be spreading beyond the financial sector to religious institutions and society at large.
* This article has been translated by AI.
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