Government agencies and public institutions have been more exposed to cyber attacks than any organization in the private sector, a study showed.

The private Financial Security Agency said Thursday that the number of daily responses to cyber attacks from government and public organizations in 2011 was an average 20.5 times.

The financial sector, which was a target of Wednesday’s hacking attack, also responded 11.8 times on a daily basis to Advanced Persistent Threats. APT is a type of targeted cyber attack to access sensitive information.

By Chung Joo-won (joowonc@heraldcorp.com)