The cybercrime alert level has been raised due to increased ransomware attacks and phishing and smishing threats targeting disaster relief funds.

The Ministry of Science and ICT announced that it will issue a cyber crisis 'attention' alert as of 11:30 AM on August 4th to proactively defend itself against the increasing number of cyber threats targeting businesses and the public, including an increase in ransomware infections and damage to domestic and foreign companies, malware infections of SW developers and web hosting companies, and an increase in phishing related to disaster relief funds.

Cyber crisis alert levels are categorized as ‘normal → concern → caution → alert → serious.’

In particular, as there are many text messages regarding the 5th disaster relief fund, it is expected that smishing damage will also increase, so careful attention is needed when clicking on internet addresses (URLs) to confirm whether they are smishing text messages.

With the crisis alert level raised to 'Attention,' the Korea Internet & Security Agency's Internet Violation Response Center will enter emergency operation mode, expand overall monitoring of cyber threats such as malware distribution and DDoS attacks, and strengthen its response system by strengthening cooperation with relevant organizations.br />
In addition, the Ministry of Science and ICT requested that companies re-examine the safety of backup data, such as conducting offline backups of important data, to prevent ransomware damage, and strengthen security measures for PCs and servers. In addition, the Ministry requested that in case of ransomware damage, people immediately report it (by calling 118 without the area code or using the ransomware-specific website).