Amid a series of serial hacking incidents in the financial sector, information leaks due to hacking also occurred at Mirae Asset Securities.
Despite the recent series of hacks against the financial sector and the announcement of countermeasures against them, concerns about additional hacking are not subsiding as Korea's largest securities firm, Mirae Asset Securities, has also suffered hacking damage.
Mirae Asset Securities [006800] announced on the 7th that external attacks targeting the mobile web mobile phone authentication login service and groupware (mi-global) occurred one day apart on the 4th and 5th.
As a result, the account numbers opened by about 3,800 customers with the company were leaked. However, Mirae Asset Securities reported that other sensitive information, such as the name of the depositor, was not leaked.
Additionally, the personal information of 35,255 executives and employees of Mirae Asset Securities, including retirees and outsourced employees, was leaked.
Most of the leaked employee personal information items included names and company numbers, but some included email addresses, mobile phone numbers, and encrypted passwords. Unique identification information and sensitive information such as resident registration number, passport number, driver's license number, and alien registration number were not leaked.
An official from Mirae Asset Securities said, "As soon as we confirmed the abnormal access situation of the external IP, we blocked the relevant access path and activated an emergency response system, and reported it to the Financial Services Commission, Financial Supervisory Service, and Personal Information Protection Committee in accordance with relevant laws."
He said, "This is a case where data was viewed from outside without normal permission, and there was no malware infection or service interruption. As confirmed to date, there has been no financial damage, and major systems and services, including the company website, are operating normally without any impact."
Mirae Asset Securities reported the infringement to the authorities the night before. It is known that the authorities are currently considering whether to dispatch an inspection team to Mirae Asset Securities next week, considering the severity of the case and available manpower.
In the domestic financial sector, damage has been occurring one after another recently due to a series of hacking attacks that are believed to have used AI agents.
In the case of Mirae Asset Group, Mirae Asset Life Insurance's customer personal information was leaked on the 26th of last month, and external infiltration attempts were discovered at Mirae Asset Asset Management and Energy Infrastructure Asset Management on the 28th and 2nd of the same month.
According to Mirae Asset Life Insurance's on-site inspection, the number of victims of information leaks due to infringement is approximately 6,800.
In addition, Mirae Asset Securities was also targeted, increasing the number of affiliates from Mirae Asset Group that suffered cyber attacks to four.
If, as a result of the authorities' inspection, any violations related to the series of infringement incidents within this group are found, there is a possibility that the company will be transferred to a prosecutor and held responsible in the future.
Recently, Lee Chan-jin, the head of the Financial Supervisory Service, examined whether the company where the accident occurred properly implemented the precautions and self-inspections previously distributed, and made it clear that he would hold the CEO of large financial companies accountable, just like the banking sector.
Previously, among other financial investment companies other than Mirae Asset, information leaks due to hacking also occurred at Daishin Securities [003540] and Hanyang Securities [001750].
Mirae Asset Securities said, "Although no other information, such as the name of the account holder, has been leaked, we ask customers to be especially careful about calls, texts, and emails impersonating Mirae Asset Securities," and urged caution against secondary damage such as phishing and smishing that misuses leaked information.
In addition, the company announced that it will operate a temporary counseling center from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on the 7th for customers who have suffered personal information leaks.
In a notice posted in the name of CEO Kim Mi-seop and Heo Seon-ho, Mirae Asset Securities said, "We once again deeply apologize for failing to fulfill our responsibility to protect our customers' valuable personal (credit) information," and added, "We are closely investigating the cause of the incident and the circumstances of the leak and are preparing measures to prevent recurrence."
