Personal Info of High-Ranking Officials Hacked: "Cheong Wa Dae Wasn't Hacked," So Where Did the Breach Occur?

Personal information of key domestic figures has been compromised by a hacking organization.

Police stated that while investigating a recent hacking incident involving the server of a private certification agency in South Korea, they discovered that the leaked data contained the personal information of prominent domestic figures.

It was found that information typically printed on business cards, such as phone numbers, affiliations, and job titles, was leaked, and the victims reportedly include high-ranking officials from Cheong Wa Dae.

Launching a full-scale investigation under the direction of the National Office of Investigation, the police have assigned the case to the Busan Provincial Police Agency to collect relevant intelligence.

The police explained that "Cheong Wa Dae's servers themselves were not hacked," adding that they are currently looking into how the certification agency's server was breached, the exact extent of the information actually secured by the hackers, and whether there are additional victims.

Separately, it was also revealed that a hacking group presumed to be backed by North Korea attacked servers of a domestic media server management company, a pharmaceutical firm, and hospitals, though the police drew a line, stating this is a separate incident from the aforementioned private certification agency hack.

While assessing the scale of additional damage, the police are also examining potential links to "Lazarus," a strategic North Korean hacking organization.

Lazarus, which first gained attention in 2014 for hacking the U.S. Hollywood film studio Sony Pictures, has recently been expanding its cyberattacks across various sectors worldwide, including governments, public institutions, businesses, finance, and cryptocurrency.

Reported by Kim Taewon | Video by Seo Byeong-wook | Graphics by Yang Hye-min | Produced by SBS Digital News
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.