Fake robot authentication screen on the University of Seoul website... “You can’t run it.”

Student Council: “Currently, measures have been taken to prevent this problem from occurring.”

(Seoul = Yonhap News) Reporter Jeong Ji-su = It was confirmed that a fake 'Robot Authentication' (reCAPTCHA) screen inducing malware infection appeared on the University of Seoul website for several days, threatening users' cyber security.

According to the University of Seoul and the university student council on the 3rd, a case was reported in which a fake 'robot authentication' screen appeared when accessing the university website from the 30th of last month to the 3rd of this month.

The student council said, “Currently, measures have been taken to prevent this problem from occurring.”

reCAPCHA provides a procedure to check whether the user is a real person and not a robot to prevent spam or hacking by automated bots. This is the authentication screen that appears with phrases such as ‘I am not a robot’ that are commonly seen on websites.

It is known that this fake screen that appears on the city university website pretends to be a normal authentication process and induces users to directly execute malicious commands. If you run this, your computer may be infected with malware.

The school urged students to “never follow instructions to press ‘Windows key R’, ‘Ctrl V’ or ‘Enter’ and close the window.”

If this is done, it is recommended to disconnect the computer from the Internet and proceed with formatting. Additionally, they were instructed to change passwords for portals, emails, etc. used on their computer from another device.

Mr. Jeon, a student in the class of '23, said, "I saw a screen on the homepage, so I followed it thinking it was an actual authentication process. There is no problem yet, but I am anxious because the university only said it was malicious code and did not provide detailed information about what it was."

The City University Student Council announced, “The university headquarters has decided to provide maximum support for students’ personal PC and laptop formats, etc.,” and added, “Follow-up measures will be announced through a portal-wide notification this evening.”