Lotte Card hit by hacking attack

(Yonhap)

South Korea’s Lotte Card Co., which has 9.6 million members, has fallen victim to a hacking attack, announcing on Monday that it reported an attempted hacking incident at the company to the Financial Supervisory Service.

“We conducted a thorough investigation via an external firm, but no key information such as customer data has been leaked, nor has there been infection by severe malicious code such as ransomware,” the company added.

However, given the recent hacking of SK telecom Co. in which over 26 million pieces of SIM information were leaked, news of another hacking incident at a company widely used by general consumers is heightening public anxiety over cyberattacks.

According to Lotte Card, the company discovered malware on a specific server during a system inspection last week and subsequently carried out a full-scale investigation across all servers. The inspection revealed two types of malicious code and five types of web shells, or files that allow attackers to remotely control servers, on three servers, which were immediately removed and led to further investigations into possible breaches or data leaks.

“It does not appear to be the work of dark web hacker groups like in the recent hacking cases involving Seoul Guarantee Insurance Co. (SGI) or Welcome Financial Group,” a Lotte Card official said, adding, “An internal investigation is still ongoing.”

“We do not view this as a significant hacking incident that has led to operational paralysis or similar critical consequences,” an official from the Financial Security Institute (FSI) said. “It will likely take several days to determine the exact scale and number of leaks.”