Korea Electric Power Corporation exposes employee personal information to external webpage... “Customer information is safe”

“Customer information is safely managed...excluded from leaks.”

(Seoul = Yonhap News) Reporter Shin Chang-yong = Recently, amid a series of personal information leaks in the financial sector, a related incident also occurred at Korea Electric Power Corporation.

However, the company believes that this incident has little relevance to the recent artificial intelligence (AI)-based hacking in the financial sector.

KEPCO said in a statement distributed on the 4th, "At around 3:59 p.m. on the 1st, we were made aware of a situation in which employee personal information was exposed on an external web page."

The exposed information includes the names, affiliations, and phone numbers of approximately 24,000 KEPCO employees. KEPCO explained that unique identification numbers and sensitive information such as resident registration numbers were not exposed, and customer information was not included in the leak.

KEPCO said that upon becoming aware of it, it immediately blocked access to the internal system related to employee personal information and requested the webpage operator to delete it.

The exposed information was deleted around midnight on the 2nd, approximately 32 hours from the time of recognition.

It is reported that the site where the information was exposed is not a website open to the general public.

Currently, KEPCO has established an emergency response situation room and is operating a cooperation system with related organizations.

In addition, the circumstances of the leak were explained to employees whose information was leaked through text messages and emails, and guidance was given on measures to prevent secondary damage.

A KEPCO official said, "If damage has occurred or is expected to occur in the future and is reported, we will conduct the necessary investigation and proceed with relief procedures such as compensation for damages," and added, "Customer information other than employees is safely managed and protected separately in a dedicated system."

He added, "Based on the cause we have identified ourselves, we are going through a verification process with a professional agency," and added, "We believe it is unrelated to the AI-based hacking attack targeting the financial sector that some are concerned about."