Financial Security Institute to Conduct Security Inspections on 178 Financial Companies

Launch of Dedicated Penetration Testing Unit and Web Security Inspection Team

The Financial Security Institute announced on the 12th that it will carry out a "vulnerability analysis and assessment" initiative to identify security vulnerabilities in the financial sector and strengthen preemptive responses. The institute will establish a dedicated penetration testing unit (the RED IRIS Office) and a web security inspection team, expand its inspection standards to reflect cloud environments, and strengthen web and mobile security inspections.

To enhance the security response capabilities of financial institutions, the Financial Security Institute plans to conduct vulnerability analysis and assessment on 178 financial companies, including comprehensive inspections, stand-alone inspections (with a choice among penetration testing, cloud, or mobile app), and inspections of public-facing websites. The vulnerability analysis and assessment standards for electronic financial infrastructure will be expanded from 789 items across 14 areas in 2025 to 869 items across 15 areas in 2026, increasing the inspection scope and targets by 9.2%. The institute also explained that it has prepared 73 new standards specialized for cloud environments to reflect the changing IT environment and the latest threat trends.

In the penetration testing area, the institute will newly organize a dedicated unit and deploy white-hat hackers across the board to expand the organizations and systems subject to inspection. The goal is to identify and remediate potential vulnerabilities in advance. In the web area, it will establish a web security inspection team to provide vulnerability analysis and assessment services for public-facing websites.

Mobile security inspections will also be expanded. The Financial Security Institute believes that, with the increasing use of super apps, vulnerability analysis and assessment in mobile environments has become more important, and will therefore conduct vulnerability analysis and assessment on 288 mobile apps at 32 companies. It plans to provide detailed guidance on the inspection results, along with consulting on root-cause analysis and remediation directions, to support substantial improvements in the security levels of financial institutions.

Park Sangwon, President of the Financial Security Institute, said, "Given the large number of security incidents that occurred last year, it is more important than ever to focus on preventive security management," adding, "As the importance of vulnerability analysis and assessment and penetration testing continues to grow, we will strengthen penetration testing and continue to pursue effective security responses." He went on to say, "We plan to actively expand and support security inspections related to web and mobile apps, which can become primary targets for external intrusion attacks."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.