Concerns over the effectiveness of emergency security checks conducted by financial authorities in response to recent hacking incidents have emerged during a National Assembly audit. Some banks reported 'no issues' after reviewing only three months of access logs, citing a lack of specific criteria in the self-inspection checklist distributed to financial institutions.
During the audit on October 8, Rep. Kim Hyung-yeon of the Justice Innovation Party questioned Financial Services Commission Chairman Lee Ok-yeon, stating, "Some banks are reporting no issues after checking just three months of data. Is a three-month check equivalent to a one-year check? Why do different financial institutions have varying inspection periods?"
Rep. Kim highlighted gaps in the self-inspection checklist, which includes 12 items, by revealing that it does not specify a timeframe for checking for attempted breaches or damages. He noted, "The checklist does not indicate how long the inspection should last, meaning both three months and one year could yield a 'yes' answer."
He also raised concerns about the item regarding the operation of real-time security monitoring systems, pointing out that Shinhan Bank, which experienced a security breach, could also answer 'yes' to this question because the compromised server was under security monitoring. This suggests that merely having a monitoring system does not adequately assess the ability to detect actual intrusions.
Additionally, it was revealed that the IP address used in the Shinhan Bank hacking had previously accessed two internet banks earlier this year. Rep. Kim stated, "After checking with the authorities using the shared attack IP, we found traces of access at two internet banks, all on the same day, January 24 of this year."
He emphasized, "If only three months had been checked, this would not have been discovered. The three internet banks were able to confirm this because they reviewed one year of data." However, he also noted that using the same IP does not necessarily indicate the same attacker.
Rep. Kim questioned whether financial authorities were verifying supporting documents beyond simple 'yes/no' answers on the self-inspection checklist. In response, Chairman Lee stated, "After this incident, we quickly instructed a review of these 12 items. We need to conduct additional checks and report on the overall findings once we receive the results."
Rep. Kim urged that all financial institutions should re-examine at least one year of records and provide detailed reports on inspection periods and findings, rather than just simple yes/no responses.
* This article has been translated by AI.
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