A Breach Every Month Raises Doubts About South Korea’s Digital Defenses

In this TechCrunch analysis, author Kate Park looks into South Korea’s struggling cybersecurity defenses despite the country’s reputation as a global leader in digital innovation with blazing-fast internet, near-universal broadband coverage, and hosting major tech brands like Hyundai, LG, and Samsung. Park reports that this very success has made South Korea a prime target for hackers, exposing the fragility of its cyber defenses through a string of high-profile attacks affecting credit card companies, telecoms, tech startups, and government agencies that have impacted vast numbers of South Koreans. In each incident, ministries and regulators appeared to scramble in parallel, sometimes deferring to one another rather than coordinating effectively, with critics arguing that the country’s cyber defenses are hindered by a fragmented system of government agencies resulting in slow and uncoordinated responses.

Park highlights that with no clear government agency acting as a “first responder” following cyberattacks, South Korea’s cyber defenses are struggling to keep pace with its digital ambitions. Brian Pak, chief executive of Seoul-based cybersecurity firm Theori and advisor to SK Telecom’s parent company’s special committee on cybersecurity innovations, told TechCrunch that the government’s approach to cybersecurity remains largely reactive, treating it as a crisis management issue rather than critical national infrastructure. Because government agencies tasked with cybersecurity work in silos, developing digital defenses and training skilled workers often get overlooked, contributing to a severe shortage of cybersecurity experts that creates a vicious cycle where insufficient expertise prevents building and maintaining the proactive defenses needed to stay ahead of threats.

According to Pak, political deadlock has fostered a pattern of seeking quick, obvious fixes after each crisis while the more challenging long-term work of building digital resilience continues to be sidelined. Park notes that this year alone, South Korea has experienced a major cybersecurity incident almost every month, further mounting concerns over the resilience of the country’s digital infrastructure and raising questions about whether its fragmented response system can adequately protect one of the world’s most digitally advanced nations…

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