▲ StarCraft file image
Employees at a government-funded research institute specializing in national information protection and cybersecurity have been caught and disciplined for playing "StarCraft" as a group during work hours.
According to data released today (October 12) by Representative Hwang Jeong-ah of the Democratic Party of Korea, a member of the National Assembly's Science, Technology, Information, Broadcasting, and Communications Committee, five employees at the National Security Research Institute (NSR) connected to the StarCraft game server "Battle.net" for over 90 hours total during work hours and received reprimands.
The employees, who belong to the Cybersecurity Training Center, took advantage of managers being away on leave or business trips to access the game server using external training networks or internal local networks. One employee's daily connection time reached 8 hours and 53 minutes.
They appear to have repeatedly accessed the server from September to December 2024, exploiting the fact that the Cybersecurity Training Center is located in a separate building away from the main headquarters in Yuseong-gu, Daejeon.
Caught through an internal whistleblower, they stated that they logged in to blow off steam after an event, while explaining that they were not actually playing the game the entire time they were connected to the server.
The NSR explained that it deducted annual paid leave equivalent to the game server connection time, and deducted from the salaries of employees who lacked sufficient leave days.
Although the NSR concluded that a pay cut was necessary for the employee with the longest connection time—who was also found to have improperly used childcare leave—it reduced the disciplinary action to a reprimand, the lowest level, taking into consideration the employee's past receipt of a National Research Council of Science & Technology chairperson commendation.
Acknowledging its lax management, the NSR stated, "We have integrated all training networks into a centralized management system, monitor all usage logs, and are implementing access blocks for non-business sites such as games."
Representative Hwang Jeong-ah criticized, "It is a severe lapse in discipline for employees tasked with protecting national cybersecurity to repeatedly access game servers while managers are absent. Reducing the punishment to a reprimand on the grounds of past commendations is a slap on the wrist that does not meet the public eye."
(Photo: Provided by Yonhap News TV, Yonhap News)
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