Hyundai Securities hit by network glitch

Cyber network problems have occurred again in the nation’s brokerage sector, following similar cases in NH Investment & Securities, Leading Investment & Securities, and Dong Yang securities earlier this year.

Customers of Hyundai Securities suffered troubles in their online investment in stocks for about an hour early Monday due to a glitch in the brokerage firm’s network system.

The investors could not log on to the company’s home trading system for 40 minutes from 9 a.m., Hyundai Securities said in a statement.

While company officials downplayed the possibility of hacking, frequent breakdown in the brokerage sector has been aggravating anxiety and complaints from financial customers.

Aside from securities firms, the loan issuance (Hyundai Capital) and banking sectors (Nonghyup) also suffered critical woes involving hacking this year.

Though the Financial Supervisory Service had pledged to conduct tougher oversight of electronic financing, incidents and accidents occurred steadily.

The watchdog had said it was conducting an IT security inspection ― in written form ― into all financial service companies since April.

Further, a task force specifically aimed at bolstering the security of the information technology sector in the financial industry has been formed, the FSS said.

“After the paper-based probe, each financial sector, such as banks and brokerage firms, would be subject to the on-the-spot probe of the task force,” an FSS official said.

By Kim Yon-se (kys@heraldcorp.com)