Heads of five South Korean banks summoned to parliamentary audit — Korea Herald

In South Korea, the heads of the five largest commercial banks have been summoned as witnesses to a parliamentary audit of the Financial Supervisory Service’s activities. On Monday, they are to answer questions about a series of cyberattacks that led to the leakage of personal data of customers and employees. This was reported by Korea Herald.

The National Assembly’s National Policy Committee on October 8 approved the summonses of KB Kookmin Bank head Lee Hwan-joo, Shinhan Bank head Chung Sang-hyuk, Hana Bank head Lee Ho-sung, Woori Bank head Jung Jin-wan, and NH NongHyup Bank head Kang Tae-young.

Scale of the leaks

The largest disclosed leak occurred at Shinhan Bank: it affected approximately 25,000 customers. At KB Kookmin Bank, the data leak affected 119 people, including 99 customers and 20 employees. At Hana Bank, 89 customers were affected.

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Woori Bank and NH NongHyup Bank also experienced similar attacks, but there were no data leaks in those cases. This is the first time since 2022 that the heads of all five leading banks in the country have been summoned to a parliamentary audit. At that time, the subject of review was embezzlement of funds and internal control problems.

Information security spending

Shinhan Bank’s spending on information security may become a separate subject of the hearings. According to Financial Supervisory Service data released by Park Dae-chul, a lawmaker from the opposition People Power Party, the bank allocated 40.59 billion won, or $30.5 million, for these needs this year. This is 10.4% less than a year earlier.

Shinhan Bank was the only one among the five largest banks whose information security budget was below 50 billion won. The Financial Supervisory Service is investigating the circumstances of the incidents and the banks’ internal control systems. Its findings could potentially affect the reappointment of the heads, whose terms expire on December 31.