South Korean Foreign Ministry System Holding Diplomat Records Compromised

A system that held roughly 10,000 records of current and retired diplomats is believed to have been compromised by an unidentified hacker, foreign ministry spokesperson Park II told reporters on Tuesday. Park didn't confirm how many records had been accessed, but Yonhap News Agency reported that no sensitive data such as identification numbers, mobile phone numbers or home addresses appeared to have been affected. "It appears that a significant amount of data has been leaked," Park said. "Govt is not ruling out any possibilities, including hacking organisations behind the scenes involving other countries."

The ministry was notified by a relevant govt agency in early Feb about suspicious access to the online education system at the academy, Yonhap reported. The ministry shut down the system, which has remained offline since while an investigation is under way.

South Korea is still reeling from a string of cybersecurity incidents, including a high-profile breach of Coupang, its leading online retailer. Last year, regulators discovered that a former employee improperly accessed personal information from 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 the history of cryptocurrency in Feb last year.