Cyberattack attempts detected at South Korea's Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs and five affiliated public institutions reached nearly 40 million through September, already surpassing the full-year total for last year. Yet dedicated information security staffing and budgets have remained flat or declined, prompting calls for a review of the agencies' security response systems.
Data submitted by the agriculture ministry and related public institutions to Rep. Kim Yong-tae of the People Power Party, a member of the National Assembly's Agriculture, Food, Rural Affairs, Oceans and Fisheries Committee, showed that the Korea Agency of Education, Promotion and Information Service in Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (EPIS) detected 38,809,710 attempted cyber intrusions from January through September this year, the lawmaker said on the 25th. That was the highest among the institutions that submitted data, indicating that intrusion attempts are concentrated at EPIS.
Cyber intrusion attempts caught by EPIS's intrusion prevention system surged to 69,874,256 in 2024 from 11,432,299 between June and December 2023. Last year the annual total fell to 36,981,402, but this year's figure exceeded that in just nine months.
Attack attempts also rose sharply at the Korea Agro-Fisheries & Food Trade Corporation (aT). Attempts by category totaled 81,620 through September, 3.6 times the 22,528 recorded for all of last year. Attempts to gain system privileges were the most common at 26,868, followed by attempts to alter the website at 20,111, information-gathering attempts at 11,444 and unauthorized access attempts at 10,834. Attempts to gain system privileges rose about fivefold from 5,381 last year, while attempts to alter the website jumped more than 18-fold from 1,093.
The Korea Institute for Animal Products Quality Evaluation has also come under attack. Attacks detected against its main website, its livestock traceability system and other key services surged from 13,692 in 2021 to 839,731 in 2022 and 1,250,163 in 2023, peaking at 1,429,102 in 2024. The figure then fell to 1,089,577 last year, but 1,102,064 were detected through September this year, already topping last year's annual total.
Hacking attempts against the Rural Development Administration and its affiliated organizations are also trending higher. Detected cyberattacks rose steadily from 2,192 in 2021 to 2,791 in 2022, 4,480 in 2023 and 5,507 in 2024. Last year the total reached 9,277, up about 68% from a year earlier, and 6,118 were tallied through September this year.
Information-gathering attempts accounted for more than half of this year's attacks on the Rural Development Administration and its affiliates, at 3,205. Denial-of-service attacks numbered 1,423, website attacks 892 and unauthorized access attempts 596. The agency said it blocked the detected hacking attempts through its firewall.
While detected attacks have increased, dedicated security staffing and budgets at some institutions have stagnated or shrunk. At EPIS, where attacks are most concentrated, the number of dedicated information security staff has stood at just one for the fifth consecutive year since 2022. Its information security budget fell about 59% to 170.6 million won from 411.88 million won in 2022. Despite more than 38.8 million intrusion attempts detected through September, no additional staff were hired and the budget was cut. The Korea Institute for Animal Products Quality Evaluation increased its dedicated security staff to two this year from one in 2024, but its security budget dropped sharply to 1.651 billion won from about 2.791 billion won over the same period.
Security staffing at the agriculture ministry and the Rural Development Administration moved in opposite directions. The ministry cut its dedicated staff to three from four in 2024 and has operated with three since last year. Its related budget rose only about 100 million won over the same period, to 2.482 billion won this year from 2.358 billion won. The Rural Development Administration raised its dedicated staff to four this year from three last year, but its security budget fell to 1.802 billion won from 1.945 billion won.
With cyberattack attempts targeting public institutions in the agri-food sector on the rise, there are calls to reassess each agency's security response capabilities. Because staffing and budgets at some institutions have stalled or fallen even as detected attacks climb, observers say effective security investment and stronger response systems are needed.