South Korea Proposes Tougher Cybersecurity Rules After 16 Financial and Crypto Firm Breaches

South Korea's Financial Services Commission (FSC) proposed stricter cybersecurity requirements for financial institutions after an industry-wide review uncovered security deficiencies at 130 out of 555 evaluated firms. The regulatory proposal followed an investigation into earlier security incidents across 16 companies, which exposed about 100k pieces of customer information, including names, contact details, and identification numbers. The affected companies include Gopax operator Streami and crypto trading platform Prabang, which previously disclosed that an Oct. 2 hack exposed customer personal information. Under the proposed reforms, larger financial institutions would face vulnerability assessments at least twice a year alongside stronger executive accountability and upgraded threat-monitoring systems. The FSC is also considering unscheduled cybersecurity inspections during urgent threats and evaluating AI tools to assist security monitoring at smaller firms, while continuing to investigate whether the earlier incidents involved AI or shared attackers.