(Seoul = Yonhap News) Reporter Seunghan Cho = Employees of the National Security Technology Research Institute, a government-funded research institute specializing in national information protection and cybersecurity, were caught playing 'StarCraft' as a group during work hours.
According to data received by Rep. Hwang Jeong-ah of the Democratic Party of Korea, a member of the Science, Technology, Information, Broadcasting and Communications Committee of the National Assembly, from the National Intelligence Research Institute affiliated with the Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI) on the 12th, five employees at the National Research Institute Cyber Security Training Center were investigated and disciplined for accessing the StarCraft game server 'Battlenet' for more than 90 hours during working hours in 2024.
It was found that they repeatedly accessed the game server from September to December 2024 using work PCs while the administrator was away on vacation or business trip.
The Cyber Security Training Center is located in a separate building nearby, away from the headquarters in Yuseong-gu, Daejeon, and it exploited the fact that access to the game server is not blocked by using an external training line.
It was also revealed that one employee was connected to the game server for up to 8 hours and 53 minutes a day, and another employee was connected for 7 hours and 21 minutes, which is equivalent to most of normal working hours.
It was also confirmed that some employees reconnected using the internal local network when the experimental Internet line was blocked in December of the same year. Their actions were revealed only after an employee of the same center reported it to ETRI Newspaper.
The employees in question stated that they accessed the game after a large event was over due to the idea of releasing the issue. However, he explained that he did not actually play the game the entire time he was connected to the game server.
After holding a disciplinary committee to investigate, the National Intelligence Service issued a light disciplinary reprimand to them.
It was judged that a pay cut was necessary for the employee who had the longest connection time to the game server and was also found to have other problems, such as illegal use of parental leave, but the disciplinary action was lowered to a reprimand, reflecting the company's history of receiving commendations from the chairman of the National Science and Technology Research Council (NST).
The National Insurance Institute explained that personal annual paid leave was deducted according to the amount of time spent accessing the game server, and employees with insufficient annual leave were deducted from their salaries.
The National Insurance Institute acknowledged the lack of management and said, "We have integrated all educational lines into a central management method, are monitoring all usage records, and are blocking access to non-business sites such as games."
He continued, “We conducted security training and related training within the center twice for all employees, and regularly inspected and reported the results of the operation of the external training network once.”
Rep. Hwang Jeong-ah said, “It is a serious breach of discipline that employees who are supposed to protect national cybersecurity repeatedly accessed game servers in the absence of managers,” and pointed out, “Determining that a pay reduction was necessary, but lowering it to a reprimand based on past commendations, is a mild disciplinary action that does not meet the public’s standards.”
He continued, “In addition to thorough service management and strict accountability, we must also check the protection system to ensure that internal reporters are not disadvantaged.”
