Bank of Korea's headquarters in central Seoul on Aug. 12, 2025YONHAP
Personal information belonging to 186 Bank of Korea (BOK) employees was leaked after a system used by an outside contractor was hacked. The central bank has also faced more than 2,000 hacking attempts against its internet-connected systems since 2021.
The breach occurred between May 9 and June 8 on a GitHub system used by a contractor that handles personal data for BOK’s online training program, according to data BOK submitted to Rep. Lee Jong-wook of the main opposition People Power Party.
The vendor breach exposed personal information belonging to users at the contractor’s client companies, including 186 BOK employees.
The leaked data included names, company names, email addresses and phone numbers. Job titles, duties, organizational affiliations and even encrypted passwords were also exposed.
BOK was notified of the breach by the contractor on June 11. The central bank informed the affected employees the following day and reported the incident to the Personal Information Protection Commission.
This was not the first time personal information held by the BOK had been exposed.
In June 2023, job applications submitted by candidates for temporary statistical survey positions were accidentally made public on BOK’s website.
The exposed documents included names, dates of birth, addresses and contact details. They also contained education and employment histories, personal statements and reasons for applying.
A projection of cyber code on a hooded figure is pictured in this illustration picture taken on May 13, 2017.REUTERS/YONHAP
The BOK removed the documents the following day and notified the applicants.
Attempts to hack the central bank’s own systems have also continued.
A total of 2,063 hacking attempts against BOK’s internet-connected systems were detected from 2021 through August this year.
There were 1,557 attempts in 2021, followed by 192 in 2022, 97 in 2023, 52 in 2024 and 30 last year.
The number rose again this year, with 135 attempts detected through August. That was 4.5 times the total for all of last year.
Unauthorized access attempts accounted for 125 of this year’s cases, while 10 involved malware.
From 2021 through August this year, unauthorized access was by far the most common type of attack, with 1,951 cases. Malware accounted for 95 cases, information-gathering attempts for 16 and one distributed denial-of-service, or DDoS, attack.
The Bank of Korea headquarters in central SeoulNEWS1
Most of the hacking attempts originated overseas.
Of the 2,063 attempts, 2,024 came from outside Korea and 39 originated domestically.
The main targets were systems connected to the public internet, including BOK’s main website, its Economic Statistics System website and its digital library.
Some attacks went beyond attempted intrusions. A DDoS attack in December 2023 disrupted access to the BOK website.
At the time, the BOK first restored domestic access by blocking connections from overseas. It then gradually reopened overseas access until all services were back to normal.
No financial information was leaked in the 2023 attack, the BOK said.
The BOK attributed the sharp drop in hacking attempts in 2022 to the bank moving its email server to the cloud and tightening login rules, which reduced brute-force attacks on user accounts.
“The BOK, as the country’s central bank, should not take lightly the leak of employees’ personal information or repeated disruptions to its website,” Rep. Lee said. “It must closely examine the causes of the repeated incidents, review its overall security system and put thorough measures in place to prevent them from happening again.”
This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
