The National Intelligence Service (NIS) has asked about 2,100 public institutions, including central government agencies and local governments, to conduct emergency cybersecurity inspections using a checklist after a series of attacks on South Korean financial firms exposed about 100,000 cases of personal information. The NIS will separately assess critical public information and communications infrastructure under its jurisdiction, focusing on internet-facing systems, potential attack entry points, security monitoring and patch management, with the assessments expected to be completed by mid-November. The wider scrutiny follows attacks affecting banks, savings banks, insurers and other institutions, as well as reported incidents involving Daishin Securities, Mirae Asset Global Investments and Bithumb. Since May, the NIS has conducted joint public-sector inspections with related agencies, including the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, amid concerns about threats linked to emerging AI technologies such as Mythos by Anthropic. The latest cybersecurity concerns also include a preliminary police investigation into personal information leaked online for 168 people who traveled aboard the presidential aircraft during a June trip to Europe, including President Lee Jae Myung, the first lady and Cabinet ministers. The foreign ministry said it is taking steps to reissue the president's and first lady's passports. Regulators plan tighter identity checks, access controls and multifactor authentication, improved information sharing and greater executive accountability. The Ministry of Science and ICT has raised the cyber crisis warning level to caution, the second-lowest level in its four-tier system, while addressing two critical PHP vulnerabilities and planning inspections of about 170 major private-sector IT infrastructure facilities. The incidents have highlighted risks to financial services, cloud-dependent businesses and connected manufacturing sectors such as semiconductors, automobiles and shipbuilding, prompting calls for stronger basic defenses and substantially higher cybersecurity investment.