Hacking accidents are spreading across the government and companies. Infringement accidents have increased rapidly, but the number of state investigators has not increased. The Korea Internet & Security Agency and the Personal Information Protection Commission are unable to handle the rapidly growing workload. Some in the industry point out that manpower reorganization is urgently needed to catch the increasingly sophisticated hacking issue.
According to related industries on the 25th, the number of infringement accidents and personal information leaks has exploded this year compared to previous years.
According to the data submitted by Kim Jang-gyeom, a member of the National Assembly`s Science, ICT and Broadcasting Committee, from KISA, 5,807 cyber infringement cases were reported to companies from 2022 to August this year. The number of reported cases has increased from 1,142 in 2022 to 1,277 in 2023. Industry sources say the number will reach 2,000 by the end of the year.
Personal information was leaked more than 30 million times. The number is more than double that of 10.112 million in 2023 and 13.77 million in 2024. The cumulative total of leaks in the past five years amounted to more than 88 million. Increased leaks lead to increased workload. KISA's detection and response of smishing increased 60 times from 37,000 in 2022 to 2.19 million in 2024. The number of malicious code analysis also increased significantly from 667,000 to 1.96 million during the same period.
Hacking is particularly serious. Recently, Coupang and Wintech Net have been exposed to hacking and reported the hacking to the Korea Internet & Security Agency (KISA) and the Personal Information Protection Commission. Hacking is also serious in the three telecom service providers such as SK Telecom, KT, and LG Uplus, as well as companies such as Lotte Card, GS Retail, Yes 24, Subway, Dior, Louis Vuitton, Tiffany, Cartier, and public sectors including the Ministry of Public Administration and Security's Onna System.
The situation has worsened, but the investigation manpower is still lacking. The number of KISA's personnel responsible for infringement accidents has increased from 123 in 2022 to 132 this year, an increase of just nine over the past three years. The number of investigators responsible for the Personal Information Commission has been 31 for four years.
Song Kyung-hee, chairman of the Personal Information Committee, recently stressed the need for manpower restructuring, saying, "We need to promptly deal with the investigation and disposal of leakage accidents. The on-site overload is serious due to lack of manpower."
"It is virtually impossible to respond to the exponentially growing hacking issue with only the current investigation manpower," an industry source said. "We need to expand our investigation manpower for efficient response." A government official said, "We continue to demand more manpower, but it is not easy to expand our manpower."
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