South Korean regulators are probing a possible cyber-attack on National Agricultural Cooperative Federation, which left millions of customers unable to access their money for several days.
National Agricultural Cooperative Federation, also known as Nonghyup, suffered a systems outage on 12 April, meaning customers were unable to withdraw and transfer money or use credit cards for three days.
According to local press reports, the country's central bank and Financial Supervisory Service are probing the outage, which Nonghyup claims may the result of an inside job.
"The latest incident was conducted internally... the meticulously designed commands entered through a laptop computer owned by a subcontractor company were carried out to simultaneously destroy the entire server system," official Kim You-Kyung told the AFP news service.
With 310,000 customers filing complaints and nearly 1000 demanding compensation, the bank says it will provide victims with full redress for any damages.
The problem comes shortly after a hacker broke into the computer systems of another south Korean outfit, Hyundai Capital, stealing personal information on around 420,000 customers and using it to blackmail the company.
S. Korea bank probed over 'cyber-attack' shutdown - AFP