South Korea's presidential office holds emergency meeting after hacks at Bithumb and two financial firms

Song Ki-ho, vice chief of the National Security Office, chaired the meeting with officials from the Financial Services Commission, the science ministry and the personal information protection watchdog, the presidential office said, according to Yonhap. They reviewed the investigations and discussed preventing phishing scams that use leaked personal information and tracing the routes of the attacks.

Bithumb said its in-house mobile system had been hacked and personal information leaked, and Daishin Securities said about 38,000 pieces of customer information were leaked, Reuters reported, citing Yonhap. The Financial Services Commission said earlier in October that a wave of attacks on 16 financial firms, including banks, had caused around 100,000 cases of data leaks.

Why it matters: The breaches extend a string of cyberattacks on South Korea's financial sector, and officials said they want to prevent secondary damage such as phishing that uses the leaked data.