By Kang Seung-woo

The nation’s financial watchdog said Wednesday that it plans to take disciplinary action against Hyundai Capital and its executives and employees for the company’s ineptitude in protecting its data from cyber criminals. Disciplinary action against its CEO Chung Tae-young has not been ruled out.

According to an intermediate briefing from the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS), the company’s website was attacked between March 6 and April 7 and personal information of around 1.75 million customers was breached by hackers who implanted a malicious program there.

But it said that no financial damage has been reported in relation to the hacking case so far, but potential damage is probable down the road.

Holding Hyundai Capital responsible for lax computer system maintenance, the FSS will take the case to its disciplinary decision committee to decide on the punishment for the company and its staff including CEO Chung.

“Hyundai Capital should be held responsible for causing public concerns on the security of electronic financial transactions and triggering social troubles due to the incident,” an FSS official said.

The FSS found through its half-month inspection last month that Hyundai Capital failed to put in place enough preventive measures required in electronic trading regulations.

Hyundai Capital, an affiliate of automotives giant Hyundai Motor and the largest lender in the country’s secondary financial sector specializes in personal loans, home mortgages, and auto financing.

On April 7 Hyundai Capital found that it had been attacked by an unknown hacker demanding 500 million won ($460,500) in return for not releasing the confidential financial information of some individuals and three days later, it held a press conference and said that personal information of its customers was stolen after failing to catch a hacker in cooperation with the police.

Meanwhile, the financial watchdog next week plans to announce measures to prevent similar cyber criminals and improve financial information technology (IT) security.

In a bid to screen IT security maintenance of the broader financial sector, the FSS has formed a public-private task force, assigned with inspecting financial firms, it said.

A total of 40 sample firms were chosen from across the financial sector, where the task force launched spot inspections on April 27 for a one-month period, the FSS added.