Cyber Attacks on Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Affiliated Organizations

According to recent data analysis, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and its affiliated organizations have been the target of approximately 25,200 attempted cyber attacks from January to August this year.

The data, submitted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and other organizations, was analyzed by Democratic Party lawmaker Lee Jae-jung, a member of the National Assembly’s Foreign Affairs and Unification Committee. The analysis revealed that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs suffered around 8,600 cyber attacks during the same period.

Other affiliated organizations also experienced a significant number of attempted cyber attacks, including the Korea Foundation with over 9,000 attempts, KOICA with over 5,100 attempts, and the Korea-Africa Foundation with over 1,800 attempts.

Server information leaks were the most common type of attack, accounting for around 5,700 cases, followed by email account hijacking and website hacking.

The United States was identified as the most common final destination IP address for hacking and other cyber attack attempts, followed by China. However, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs emphasized that it is impossible to determine the country of origin for hacking attempts based solely on the final transit IP address, as hackers often use multiple transit points to conceal their locations.

Key Statistics:

• Approximately 25,200 attempted cyber attacks on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and affiliated organizations from January to August.
• 8,600 cyber attacks on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
• Over 9,000 attempted cyber attacks on the Korea Foundation.
• Over 5,100 attempted cyber attacks on KOICA.
• Over 1,800 attempted cyber attacks on the Korea-Africa Foundation.
• Server information leaks accounted for around 5,700 cases.