Shinhan Credit Union Apologizes Belatedly for Computer System Failure

Shinhan Credit Union Central Office sent an apology text message to customers regarding a computer system failure that occurred on the 2nd, but this was done more than three hours after the outage occurred, and an official homepage apology was posted the next day.

According to Shinhan Credit Union Central Office on the 3rd, the computer system failure occurred at approximately 2:20 p.m. on the 2nd. The union explained that a temporary overload occurred during internal system data processing, causing disruptions to some financial services.

Shinhan Credit Union initiated emergency recovery immediately after the failure occurred, and explained that the main system failures were resolved starting from 3:40 p.m., with financial services being progressively normalized.

However, according to this news organization's reporting, disruptions to service continued, with errors occurring in internet banking until around 4 p.m. Shinhan Credit Union says it is difficult to confirm the exact time when all financial services were completely normalized.

Customer notification came even later.

Shinhan Credit Union began sending sequential apology text messages to customers starting from 5:30 p.m., approximately three hours and 10 minutes after the failure occurred, with the sending process continuing until the morning of the 3rd.

An apology statement was posted on the official homepage on the 3rd, the day after the failure occurred. This came after this news organization inquired with Shinhan Credit Union on the morning of that day about the circumstances of the failure and whether customers were harmed.

In particular, the access screen during the outage displayed a system maintenance notice indicating it would be completed by 10 a.m., but this notice remained displayed throughout the afternoon, which increased user confusion.

The union stated that the 350 billion won next-generation computer network construction project that had been pointed to as a cause is unrelated to this computer system failure. A Shinhan Credit Union official explained that "the project is currently in the consulting stage, before the main development phase begins."

Regarding customer damages, the union stated there were no confirmed financial losses. However, verification of transaction errors and actual damages is still underway. If damages are confirmed, necessary measures will be taken according to relevant procedures and standards.

A Shinhan Credit Union official stated, "We will carefully analyze the circumstances and causes of this failure, and do our best to strengthen system stability to prevent similar failures from occurring again. We plan to review the performance management and operational status of computer systems and improve related systems and response procedures to enable prompt response when failures occur."