Personal Information of 10,000 People, Including Diplomats, Leaked... "Possibility of State-Sponsored Attack"

[Anchor]

It has been revealed that the system of the Korea National Diplomatic Academy, which operates under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, has been hacked for 10 months. The system contained the personal information of 10,000 people, including former and current diplomats and overseas mission staff, and officials are not ruling out the possibility that North Korea or China may be behind the attack.

Reporter Kim Ayeong has the story.

[Reporter]

The hacked site is the online education system of the Korea National Diplomatic Academy under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

It was established in 2022 during the COVID-19 pandemic to provide remote training for diplomats and others. It was determined that hackers infiltrated the site's server in April and May of last year.

Investigations showed that the hackers accessed the system frequently until this past February.

The server contained up to 10,000 records of personal information, including that of South Korean diplomats, staff at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs headquarters and overseas missions, and personnel dispatched from other government agencies.

The leaked information includes names, user IDs, encrypted passwords, and email addresses, and it is known that it is also possible to infer job titles and work locations from the data.

[Park Il / Spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs: We are taking this matter very seriously and will cooperate with relevant agencies to make every effort to thoroughly investigate the incident.]

It is presumed that the hackers exploited an undisclosed security vulnerability that even the software manufacturer was unaware of. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated that it is not ruling out any possibilities, including the involvement of state-sponsored hacking organizations.

[Jo Jeong-dae / Cybersecurity Expert: If they carried out an unknown attack, it is limited for an individual to do so, and there is a possibility that North Korea or China could be behind it.]

The National Intelligence Service notified the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the hacking incident this past February, and the ministry stated that it blocked access to the site immediately afterward.

(Video reporting: Joo Yong-jin, Video editing: Lee Seung-yeol)

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