Data from 20 private equity funds leaked in hacking attack in S. Korea

Seoul, Sep 22 (IANS) Data from around 20 asset management firms in South Korea were breached in a hacking incident earlier this month, industry sources said on Monday.

A cloud server maintained by an IT subcontractor and used mostly by local small and medium-sized private equity funds was hacked by the Russian-speaking ransomware gang Qilin, according to the sources, reports Yonhap news agency.

Qilin claimed that the leaked data include the firms' tax-related documents, employee data and personal information of their investors.

Financial authorities said they have yet to receive any reports of credit information leaks that could lead to monetary damage. They added they were aware of the data breach in advance and have been monitoring the situation.

The incident is the latest in a series of massive cyber breach cases in the financial sector. Earlier, Lotte Card Co., the country's fifth-largest card issuer, had suffered a data leak affecting some 3 million customers in a hacking attack.

Meanwhile, over 7,000 cases of data breaches have been reported by companies in South Korea over the past six years, data showed, raising concerns over the country's cybersecurity amid a recent string of hacking attacks against telecom and financial firms.

A total of 7,198 cases of cybersecurity threats were filed with authorities between 2020 and last Sunday, according to data submitted to Rep. Hwang Jung-a of the ruling Democratic Party.

The number of cases stood at 603 in 2020 and climbed slightly to 640 in 2021 before nearly doubling to 1,142 in 2022, reports Yonhap news agency.

In 2023, a total of 1,277 cases were reported, followed by 1,887 in 2024 and 1,649 so far this year.

Small and medium-sized firms reported 5,907 such cases, accounting for 82 percent of the total, followed by mid-sized firms at 592 cases, and conglomerates at 242 cases. Nonprofit organisations also reported 457 cases, according to the data.

—IANS

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