Hacking attempts targeting South Korea's National Pension Service (NPS) have more than tripled from a year earlier.
A total of 191,285 hacking attempts were detected from January through August this year, according to data submitted by the National Pension Service to Rep. Park Yong-gap of the Democratic Party of Korea on Sept. 18. That marks a 275.5% jump from 50,940 attempts in the same period last year. Annual figures stood at 9,909 in 2022, 8,511 in 2023, 38,574 in 2024 and 97,697 in 2025.
Most of the attempts originated overseas. By country, the United States accounted for the largest share with 64,966 attempts, or 33.9%, followed by Germany with 10,396 attempts (5.4%) and China with 10,038 attempts (5.2%). By type, web hacking accounted for 96,966 cases, information gathering for 91,109 cases and distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks for 2,552 cases.
None of the attempts led to a leak of personal information or a security breach. The National Pension Service said it responds to threats in real time through its cybersecurity monitoring center and works with higher-level agencies including the National Intelligence Service and the Ministry of Health and Welfare to manage security policy.
"With hacking attempts surging, the government and the National Pension Service must strengthen security systems preemptively," Park said.
