Yoido Full Gospel Church Reports Leak of 850,000 Members' Personal Data, Weighs Police Investigation

[Anchor]

As we previously reported, suspected hacking incidents have occurred at two large churches. Yoido Full Gospel Church has issued a formal apology after finding circumstances indicating that the personal information of 850,000 church members may have been leaked. Both churches are considering requesting police investigations.

Reporter Hong Yeongjae has the details.

[Reporter]

This is the apology statement sent by Yoido Full Gospel Church to its members.

The church stated that it sincerely apologizes for causing concern through this incident, despite holding the responsibility to safely manage and protect personal information.

Regarding the response process, the church explained that immediately after receiving a notification from the Korea Internet & Security Agency (KISA) regarding suspected personal information leaks, it launched emergency security inspections and protective measures.

[Yang Jin-o / Director of Broadcasting, Yoido Full Gospel Church: We confirmed that there were seven cases of suspected data leaks. Among them, six cases contained no personal information, while we verified that one case concerning member information modification history contained some personal information.]

As a result of the investigation, the church stated that data containing the names, dates of birth, and personal information modification histories of approximately 850,000 church members appears to have been leaked.

This includes approximately 2,600 cases of resident registration number modification histories, 3,900 cases of telephone number modification histories, and 7,200 cases of address modification histories.

With even the modification histories of sensitive information exposed as they were, the church is individually notifying the affected members of the leak.

However, regarding the circumstances surrounding the leak of donation histories from 1993 to 2019, the church clarified that the data consisted solely of amounts and transaction details, containing no personal information such as names, resident registration numbers, or telephone numbers.

Yoido Full Gospel Church has officially reported the security breach to the Korea Internet & Security Agency and is reviewing whether to request a police investigation.

Sarang Church, which also faces circumstances involving the personal information leak of over 89,000 members and staff, stated that it is reviewing whether to report the security breach and request an investigation as well.

(Camera: Kang Dong-chul | Video Editing: Yoon Tae-ho)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.