[Anchor]

Government authorities have detected circumstances suggesting that the leak of personal data belonging to the presidential delegation may have occurred through an external contractor commissioned by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for security services. It has also been confirmed that another diplomatic document was posted to the overseas website where the presidential delegation's personal information was first exposed.

Reporter Kang Min-u reports.

[Reporter]

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

The government had previously been tracing the file's transfer path 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 and systems.

The foreign ministry's Diplomatic Cyber Security Center outsources services to a specialized contractor to operate and monitor security control systems and analyze malware, and it is suspected that the file in question may have been uploaded via this contractor to a paid overseas website that scans for malware.

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

Police have already launched a formal investigation into the case on charges of violating the Personal Information Protection Act.

On the malware-testing site where the presidential delegation file was found, records were also confirmed showing that another document related to foreign affairs had been registered.

Uploaded eight months ago in March, this document is presumed to be a request for a bilateral meeting involving South Korea and the International Court of Justice, and the foreign ministry is currently investigating the document's origin.

If it is ultimately confirmed that this personal information leak occurred through the contractor tasked with cybersecurity monitoring, an expansion of the investigation appears inevitable to determine whether additional leaks have occurred.

(Camera by Cho Chun-dong, Jeong Sang-bo, Choi Dae-woong, Yoon Hyeong | Video Editing by Jang Hyun-ki | Graphics by Park Cheon-woong)