Foreign Ministry spokesman Park II told reporters on Tuesday that a system holding about 10,000 records of current and retired diplomats is believed to have been breached by unidentified hackers. Parker did not confirm how many records were accessed, but Yonhap reported that sensitive data such as identification numbers, mobile phone numbers or home addresses did not appear to be affected.“It appears that a significant amount of data has been compromised,” Parker said. “The government does not rule out any possibility, including involvement of hacking groups from other countries.”According to Yonhap News Agency, the ministry received notification from relevant government agencies in early February that there was suspicious access to the college’s online education system. The department shut down the system, which has been offline since the investigation was ongoing.South Korea continues to be plagued by a series of cybersecurity incidents, including a high-profile data breach at its leading online retailer Coupang. Last year, regulators discovered that a former employee improperly accessed the personal information of nearly 34 million accounts, or about two-thirds of the country’s population.North Korean hackers have carried out a series of cyberattacks in recent years, including the largest digital heist in cryptocurrency history last February.(This is a report from Bloomberg)
