Tving, telecom and bank security chiefs face lawmakers at Korea cyber audit

South Korea's National Assembly Science, ICT, Broadcasting and Communications Committee audited the Ministry of Science and ICT on Oct 6, calling in executives and security officers from companies that have suffered data breaches and focusing on the government's response to recent cyber incidents. Asia Economy reported that the hearing opened with criticism over a series of suspected AI-related hacking incidents in the financial sector and demands for a rapid response. [ 2 , 3 ]

Tving CEO Choi Joo-hee appeared as a witness over a breach at the streaming company. Hankook Ilbo reported that a joint public-private investigation found the late-May incident exposed 39.54 million account records, including duplicates. According to the same report, the committee was expected to ask why Tving exposed access keys in source code or stored them without encryption, how it controlled access rights to development and operating environments, whether it recognised and fixed known vulnerabilities, whether its compensation of points and insurance matched the scale of the damage, and how it would schedule and measure promised increases in information protection spending. [ 1 ]

The chief information security officers of the three major telecoms also took the witness stand: Lee Jong-hyun of SK Telecom, Lee Sang-woon of KT and Hong Gwan-hee of LG Uplus. Hankook Ilbo reported that the committee intended to check whether the security measures the carriers announced after last year's incidents led to real system improvements, including whether higher security spending and more specialist staff shortened detection and response times. Witnesses also included Park Su-kyung of Duo, Hong Seung-il of Healing Paper, which runs Gangnam Unni, Lim Han-wook and Shin Yong-seok of Toss Payments, Kim Jin-a of Meta Korea, Kim Jung-hoon of Woowa Brothers and Brett Anthony Matthis of Coupang. [ 1 , 2 ]

Much of the political criticism concerned banks. Asia Economy reported that suspected AI-agent-related data leaks occurred at major commercial banks including Shinhan, KB Kookmin and Hana ahead of the audit, that the Financial Services Commission and Financial Supervisory Service are investigating, and that the Ministry of Science and ICT has run a 24-hour emergency response system. The report noted the financial sector falls under the National Assembly's Political Affairs Committee, but that lawmakers also questioned the responsibility of the science ministry and the Korea Internet and Security Agency as the bodies that oversee cyber incident response. [ 2 ]

Representative Choi Hyung-doo of the People Power Party said the ministry was treating the bank hacking as the financial regulator's business, arguing that inter-agency barriers that a cross-government information protection plan was meant to remove still exist, Seoul Economic Daily reported. Representative Seo Cheon-ho said the ministry should recognise its responsibility as the lead hacking-response body and criticised the absence of a government-wide response structure, according to the same outlet. [ 3 ]

Deputy Prime Minister and Science Minister Bae Kyung-hoon responded that the ministry would take the lead in managing and responding to breach incidents and in sharing information with companies and across government, Seoul Economic Daily reported. He said the ministry had increased its information protection budget by 44% year on year, that enforcement under the amended Information and Communications Network Act took effect on Oct 1, allowing on-site investigation even without a company's own report, and that punitive and economic sanctions would be strengthened. Asia Economy reported that Bae also said frontier AI model development and the “AI for All” service would proceed on schedule, with the service to be launched by the end of the year. [ 2 , 3 ]