South Korea's financial sector is facing a second wave of cyberattacks this October, involving Daishin Securities, Mirae Asset Global Investments and the Bithumb exchange. Daishin reported that personal data of 38,490 customers was exposed, while Mirae and Bithumb reported unauthorised access without confirmed theft of customer data. Authorities recorded about 4.4 million scanning attempts from North Korean IP addresses, none confirmed as a successful intrusion. Supervisors are carrying out inspections and calling for stronger defences against AI-assisted attacks.

What it means: The picture in Korea shows what coordinated pressure on a whole sector looks like: not one bank under attack, but many organisations within a short time, often through peripheral systems such as internal staff platforms rather than the core trading systems. Millions of scanning attempts show that attackers search at scale, often automatically, for the weakest point. For the Greek financial sector, the DORA regulation already requires recording and reporting serious incidents, resilience testing and oversight of technology providers. The Korean case is a reminder that these requirements must also cover less visible systems, such as email, collaboration tools and HR applications, which often have weaker controls. Information sharing between banks, brokers and crypto providers is also critical, so that an organisation under attack can warn the others in time. For customers, leaked contact details usually mean a rise in targeted scam messages over the following weeks, so caution towards calls and messages asking for codes remains the best defence.

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