On July 22, National Security Office Chief Wi Sung-lak addressed the hacking incident involving the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' National Diplomatic Academy educational information system, stating, "The reason we could not announce the relevant facts immediately was that there were security issues that needed urgent attention among the hacked information."
During a briefing at the Blue House, Wi explained, "It took several months to address the related issues, and we announced it on the 20th. There was absolutely no intention to hide or conceal anything."
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs revealed on the 20th that the National Diplomatic Academy's educational information system was hacked in April of last year, and it was only in February of this year that they identified the issue, leading to the system being shut down and an investigation into the damage.
This has raised concerns regarding the delay in disclosing the personal information leak, which was made public only this month, five months after the hacking was recognized.
Wi acknowledged, "If we had provided a detailed explanation at the early stage of recognizing the hacking, it could have dispelled misunderstandings. I think our communication was insufficient. Since this was a matter with security implications, we had to prioritize our response, which delayed the public announcement of the facts."
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is currently investigating the hacking damage in cooperation with relevant agencies over a period of about five months. The affected system contained information on up to 10,000 individuals, including names, IDs, and email addresses of foreign service officials, diplomats, and trainees.
Wi stated, "We will take this incident as a lesson and do our utmost to check our security system and prevent recurrence. We will also create guidelines or firewalls to address this issue."
* This article has been translated by AI.
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