Hacking attempts targeting South Korea's National Pension Service, which manages retirement funds for more than 20 million subscribers, have more than tripled from a year earlier. Analysts say strengthening cybersecurity to protect citizens' personal data and assets is urgent, as the pension fund expands its assets under management after posting a double-digit return in the first half of this year.
A total of 191,285 hacking attempts were detected from January through August this year, according to data submitted to Rep. Park Yong-kap of the Democratic Party of Korea by the National Pension Service on the 18th. That marks a 275.5% surge from 50,940 attempts in the same period last year. By year, the figures were 9,909 in 2022, 8,511 in 2023, 38,574 in 2024 and 97,697 in 2025.
Most of the attempts originated overseas. The United States accounted for the largest share at 64,966 attempts, or 33.9%, followed by Germany with 10,396 (5.4%) and China with 10,038 (5.2%). Attempts from within South Korea totaled just 2,252, or 1.1%. By type, web hacking accounted for 96,966 cases, information gathering for 91,109 and distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks for 2,552.
Despite the increase in attempts, no actual data leak or breach has occurred, the data showed. The National Pension Service said it responds to threats in real time through its cybersecurity monitoring center and manages security policies in coordination with higher-level agencies including the National Intelligence Service and the Ministry of Health and Welfare.
The sharp rise in detected attempts is also attributed in part to an artificial intelligence-based security orchestration, automation and response (SOAR) system that the pension service adopted in May last year. The shift from manual analysis of intrusions to automated system analysis brought attacks that previously went undetected into the tally.
"The National Pension Service is a core public institution that manages the retirement assets of the people, so there can be no gaps in its security," Park said. "The government and the National Pension Service must strengthen their security systems preemptively, ahead of cyber threats."
