The government will strengthen its investigative powers to deal with digital threats and hacks that threaten public safety.

Authorities, including the Ministry of Science and ICT, the Ministry of Economy and Finance, the Financial Services Commission, the Ministry of the Interior and Safety and the National Intelligence Service, announced the plan at the government complex in Seoul on Wednesday.

The plan will allow government agencies to investigate data breaches across both the public and private sectors, even if the affected company does not report a breach.

Sanctions will also be strengthened against entities that violate security obligations, including increased fines and penalties for delayed reporting, failure to implement preventative measures and repeated leaks of personal and credit information.

A massive inspection of around 16-thousand information technology systems in the public, financial and telecommunications sectors will also be launched, focusing on potential vulnerabilities.

The government said it recognizes recent hacking incidents in the country as a serious crisis, adding that it will operate an “organic response system” led by the Office of National Security.

Multiple leading telecommunications companies have recently suffered data breaches that exposed significant amounts of sensitive customer information.

The government also said it will gradually restrict the mandatory installation of security software starting next year and change network segmentation regulations that do not conform to global changes, such as the rise of cloud networking and AI, to focus on data security.

In addition to these short-term strategies, the government plans to establish a national cybersecurity strategy laying out mid- to long-term tasks before the end of this year.