S. Korea probes leak of president's passport details

SOUTH Korea is investigating an online leak of passport details belonging to President Lee Jae-myung and more than 160 other officials, said a minister yesterday.

Local media reported on Monday that a file containing personal details, including the passport numbers and dates of birth of the first couple and senior officials accompanying Lee on an overseas trip, had been uploaded to a website in June.

The file was reportedly uploaded to VirusTotal, a malware-scanning platform, ahead of Lee's visit to Europe, and remained accessible for nearly five months.

It remains unclear who uploaded it and why.

The Foreign Ministry has since renewed the passports of all those affected and had the exposed information removed from the website, said ministry spokesman Park Doo-soon at a news briefing yesterday.

"The Foreign Ministry is working with the national police and other agencies to determine how the information was leaked."

He said the ministry was treating the incident as a data leak rather than a hacking attack and was examining computers and email accounts used to prepare for the trip.

The leak was a "serious matter that must not be taken lightly", Presidential Chief of Staff Lim Kwang-hyun told an emergency meeting on the breach, according to Lee's office.

The incident raised "the need for a thorough investigation into how the leak occurred, the extent of the information exposed and whether any actual harm had resulted", he said.

Yesterday, Lee called for the creation of a powerful government-wide cybersecurity body to coordinate functions scattered across agencies, pointing to limitations in the current capacity to protect critical systems.

"The existing security system, which centres on inspections and after-the-fact responses, is showing clear limitations.

"There is also a need to discuss setting up a government-wide task force that spans both the public and private sectors," he told a cabinet meeting. — AGENCIES