As cyberattacks escalate in South Korea, new data reveals that smaller enterprises are bearing the brunt of the damage. (Image courtesy of Kobiz Media)
SEOUL, Apr. 2 (Korea Bizwire) – As cyberattacks escalate in South Korea, new data reveals that smaller enterprises are bearing the brunt of the damage, according to the Korea Internet and Security Agency (KISA).
KISA figures show a sharp rise in reported cyber incidents, from 630 cases in 2020 to 1,227 in 2023 – nearly doubling in just two years.
Distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks, which overwhelm systems with malicious traffic, had initially declined from 213 cases in 2020 to 122 in 2022 before spiking again to 213 last year.
Over half (51.5%) of these DDoS strikes targeted telecommunications firms and web hosting services, a significant jump from 9.8% the previous year.
While ransomware attack reports dipped by nearly 30% to 258 cases in 2022, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) accounted for 78% of the victimized businesses. Overall, SMEs suffered 81% of all reported cyberattacks, including ransomware incidents.
“Attackers are going after easily breachable SMEs first to extract financial gains,” said Lim JinSoo, KISA’s head of cyber threat prevention.
Hackers frequently target smaller firms due to the higher likelihood of underinvestment in cybersecurity as company size decreases.
A 2023 survey by the Korea Information Security Industry Association found that while 70.6% of companies with over 250 employees had dedicated security teams, only 49.6% of firms with 50-249 workers maintained such teams, dropping to a mere 27.4% for those with under 50 staff.
Moreover, 42.2% of respondents lacked cybersecurity budgets entirely.
To address these vulnerabilities, KISA plans to fortify its “cyber incident prevention chain” by bolstering secure software development, corporate security assessments, simulation drills, and defense services.
Initiatives include expanding simulated breach testing to firms with critical technologies and consumer-facing platforms in sectors like transportation, telecommunications and online services. KISA will also increase its cyber crisis response drills from three to four scenarios.
Additionally, the agency’s “cyber shelter” service, which reroutes DDoS traffic to filter legitimate traffic, will be enhanced to provide comprehensive web security beyond just DDoS mitigation.
“We’re directly assisting under-resourced SMEs and smaller businesses,” said Lim. “Just as we don masks during dust storms, IT systems must also take preventive measures against the ‘cyber sandstorm’ of hacking threats approaching.”
Kevin Lee (kevinlee@koreabizwire.com)
