[THE INVESTOR] Banks and other financial institutions in Korea are bracing for cyberattacks by blackmailers, according to the industry on June 27.

No damage has been reported so far, but about 20 banks, brokerages and the Korea Exchange have received threats by hacking groups about paralyzing their websites.

They received emails that set a deadline to transfer funds to the blackmailers to avoid the attacks.

On June 26, four financial institutions -- Korea Financial Telecommunications & Clearings Institute, Suhyup Bank, DGB Daegu Bank and JB Bank -- came under a distributed denial of service attack by a hacking extortion group named “The Armada Collective.”

The four institutions, however, managed to fend off the attacks, according to officials at the Financial Supervisory Service.

Banks and financial institutions have been beefing up security of their systems.

By Alex Lee and newswires (alexlee@heraldcorp.com)