Police to refer financial hacking cases to new investigation agency

Police have decided to refer a series of hacking incidents at financial institutions to a new investigation agency tasked with handling major crimes, officials said Tuesday.

The National Office of Investigation under the Korean National Police Agency said it will notify the Serious Crime Investigation Agency (SCIA) of suspected violations of the Electronic Financial Transactions Act and the Information and Communications Network Act.

By law, police are required to notify the SCIA immediately after detecting serious crimes. If they have notified the agency by phone, they must provide a written notification within three days.

The SCIA must respond whether it will launch an investigation within seven days of receiving the notification.

The decision came after about 16 local financial institutions, including banks, savings banks and insurance companies, were hit by a series of cyberattacks earlier this month, with about 100,000 cases of personal data being exposed across the industry, including email addresses, names and phone numbers.

Yonhap