Sogang University Suffers Cyberattack; Personal Data of 180,000 Leaked

SEOUL, Aug. 15 (Yonhap) -- Sogang University in Seoul came under a hacking attack, and some 180,000 pieces of personal information of students, graduates, faculty and others were leaked, officials said Saturday. Former President Park Geun-hye is believed to be among those affected.

The school said it has confirmed circumstances where some information was leaked due to an unidentified outside attack on its integrated login account information. Leaked information includes student ID numbers, names, affiliations, mobile phone numbers and passwords.

School officials said they became aware of the attack on Friday, three days after it occurred. The university has since blocked the IP address used in the attack, taken emergency measures, and reported the incident to the Personal Information Protection Commission and the education ministry.

"Emergency response measures have been completed, and we're now checking vulnerable points in the internal server," an official said. "We're working with an outside cybersecurity firm on measures to prevent additional damage, including strengthening the monitoring system."

Former President Park, who graduated from the university with a major in electronics engineering in 1974, is believed to be among those affected. When her student ID, which was made public during her 2007 presidential campaign, is entered into a website set up to check for data leaks, a message confirms that her information was also compromised.