Hacking attempts on gov't systems top 410,000 over 5 years: data

SEOUL, Oct. 7 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's major government systems have suffered more than 410,000 hacking attempts over the past five years, with more than a quarter originating from China, data showed Wednesday.

A total of 410,140 hacking attempts targeting the finance ministry, the National Tax Service, the Public Procurement Service and the National Information Resources Service were detected between 2016 and August this year, according to the data for an annual parliamentary inspection of the agencies.

The number has been rising rapidly over the years. The tally came to 53,550 in 2016 but soared to 124,754 last year. In the first eight months of the year, the agencies reported 74,324 hacking attempts.

A majority of the IP addresses used for the attacks were traced to areas in China (27.9 percent) and the United States (16.7 percent).

Slightly over 40 percent of the hacking attempts were aimed at information leakage, followed by website defacement with 16 percent.

The state tax office was the prime target, with nearly 9,700 hacking attempts taking place over the past five years, according to the data.

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