Korea National Diplomatic Academy Suffers Nine-Month Hacking Breach Since Last Year; “Data Leak Details Unconfirmed” | #hacking | #cybersecurity | #infosec | #comptia | #pentest | #hacker

It was belatedly revealed that the online education system of the Korea National Diplomatic Academy, which operates under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, suffered a hacking breach over a period of approximately nine months beginning in the first half of last year. However, the perpetrator of the hack and the details of any leaked data have yet to be identified.

On July 20, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced, “An unidentified attacker exploited an undisclosed (zero-day) vulnerability in the server software as well as a misconfiguration in the system’s security settings, taking control of the server between April and May last year, and continued to access it until February of this year.” The ministry stated that it became aware of suspicious access to the system in early February this year, upon notification from relevant authorities. After urgently blocking access to the system, the ministry conducted an investigation in collaboration with related agencies. The breach became public only about five months after the authorities’ notification.

According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, “The attacker accessed the system by exploiting a zero-day vulnerability that even the software manufacturer was not aware of at the time and then used legitimate software permissions, which made detection by standard methods difficult,” adding, “At that point, security updates to address this problem were not yet available, limiting the ability to respond.”

The online education system of the Korea National Diplomatic Academy contains educational videos, as well as information such as the names and user IDs of participants. However, the ministry stated that it is currently difficult to determine the exact details of any data leakage.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs commented, “The increasing sophistication and expansion of cyberattacks present a serious cause for concern,” and added, “We plan to continuously strengthen internal security improvements and management measures in close cooperation with relevant agencies.”

© The Asia Business Daily. All rights reserved. Unauthorized AI training and use prohibited.