Signs of Leak via External Contractor Detected; Other Documents Also Found

[Anchor]

A government investigation is underway into the leak of personal information of the presidential delegation, including President Lee Jae-myung and the First Lady. Intelligence authorities have uncovered indications that the personal data file was leaked through an external contractor commissioned by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for security monitoring services.

Reporter Kang Min-u has the details.

[Reporter]

The leaked personal information file of the presidential delegation is believed to have been prepared by the Office of the Chief of Protocol at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Previously, the government had been tracing the file's transmission route under the assumption that an issue arose while it was being delivered to the Belgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs via the South Korean Embassy to Belgium and the European Union.

According to SBS reporting, the government has detected signs that the file was leaked through an external contractor responsible for security monitoring of the Foreign Ministry's internal network.

The ministry's Diplomatic Cyber Security Center outsources services to specialized companies for security control system operations, monitoring, and malware analysis. It is believed that the file in question may have been uploaded through this contractor to an overseas paid website used to inspect files for malware.

In response to SBS inquiries regarding the specific circumstances, the contractor stated, "It is difficult to comment as the matter is currently under investigation."

Earlier, police launched a formal investigation into the case on charges of violating the Personal Information Protection Act.

Records indicating that another diplomatic document had been registered were also identified on the same malware-checking website where the presidential delegation file was found.

This file, posted in March, eight months ago, is presumed to be a document requesting a bilateral meeting concerning the Republic of Korea and the International Court of Justice, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is investigating its origin.

If it is ultimately confirmed that this personal information leak occurred through the contractor tasked with cyber security monitoring, an expansion of the investigation to verify the possibility of additional leak damage appears inevitable.

(Video by Cho Choon-dong, Jeong Sang-bo, Choi Dae-woong, and Yoon Hyeong | Video Editing by Jang Hyun-ki | Design by Park Cheon-woong)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.