The personal information of South Korea's President Li Zemin and his family, as well as that of State Councilors and staff from the Presidential Palace, was once leaked on the internet, causing controversy.
According to a report by the Korean Broadcasting Corporation (KBS) on June 2, a document titled "Passenger List (Korea-Belgium)" was posted on a website related to a paid cybersecurity service. The document contained the names and personal information of high-ranking officials such as Lee Jae-myung and his wife, Kim Yong-baek, who was then the Director of the Policy Bureau at the Blue House, Wei Shengluo, the Director of the National Security Bureau, Han Seong-suk, the Prime Minister, and several other department heads.
Among those whose personal information was leaked are employees of the Blue House and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, security guards from the presidential security service, and reporters working for the Blue House. The leaked information includes Korean and English names, institutions and positions held, dates of birth, passport numbers, as well as the date and validity period of passports.
The aforementioned website specializes in providing paid detection services, which can check whether computer files or websites are at risk of being infected with malware. It is speculated that the document containing information about the personnel who traveled with President Moon Jae-in during his June visit to Europe using the presidential jet “Air Force One” may have been uploaded to the website during the malware detection process.
The widespread exposure of personal information of the president and key government officials has raised doubts about potential vulnerabilities in security measures. Currently, the relevant documents are prohibited from being accessed. However, this document was uploaded to the aforementioned website on June 2nd, just before Lee Jae-myung’s departure for his foreign trip. The government became aware of the information leakage approximately five months later.
The Air Force One is managed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which is in charge of diplomatic affairs. The Blue House stated that it has taken action after learning of the information leakage, and relevant departments including the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will take further measures. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that it takes this incident seriously and is conducting an in-depth investigation into the details.
On the 3rd, the Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated that they are processing the issuance of passports for all relevant individuals, including the president and his wife, Lee Jae-myung. The incident involved the leakage of the list of passengers on the presidential aircraft, Air Force One.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Park Du-chun stated that the Ministry immediately requested relevant agencies to conduct an investigation after confirming the fact of information leakage. Currently, the Ministry is cooperating with police departments and other relevant authorities to investigate the process of the information leakage. He also mentioned that the Ministry is conducting technical inspections on computers and emails related to the June presidential visit activities, and has removed relevant information from the affected websites, taking additional protective measures.
Park Doo-jun stated that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs believes this incident to be a data breach rather than a hacker attack, and will investigate the details of the information leakage and its background thoroughly. In response to questions regarding whether the Ministry of Foreign Affairs can upload travel-related materials to external internet platforms, he simply said that all travel-related materials are managed as confidential documents.
