Police are investigating a private company breach that leaked a senior presidential official’s personal information, in addition to separate attacks suspected to be from North Korean hacker group Lazarus.
Police have launched an investigation after personal information belonging to a senior South Korean presidential official was found among data hacked from a private company. In a separate case, police are also investigating a series of cyberattacks suspected to be the work of North Korean hacking group Lazarus.
“Hackers breached the server of a private certification agency in the country [South Korea], and we found personal information belonging to a prominent figure while analyzing the stolen data,” the National Office of Investigation (NOI) under the Korean National Police Agency said on Thursday.
The person is reportedly a senior figure currently working at the Blue House.
The affected company certifies the quality of industrial products and does not handle personal credit information. The leaked data reportedly consisted of basic information typically found on a business card, such as the person’s name, affiliation and phone number.
“The personal information was breached due to a hack of a private company — not of the Blue House,” the NOI said. The Blue House also denied allegations that the presidential office was hacked.
Police are separately investigating a broader series of cyberattacks suspected to have been carried out by a North Korean state-backed hacking group.
“We are investigating hacks by a state-backed hacking group that targeted a server management company for media outlets, a pharmaceutical company and hospitals,” the NOI said.
Police suspect Lazarus, a notorious North Korean hacking group, may be behind the attacks.
Lazarus is one of North Korea’s most notorious hacking groups along with Kimsuky, another North Korean hacker group. Lazarus is suspected of carrying out the 2014 hack of Sony Pictures Entertainment in the United States, the 2016 Bangladesh Bank cyber heist and the 2017 WannaCry ransomware attack.
Lazarus was also behind a major series of cyberattacks on private and public institutions in South Korea in 2022, according to police.
At the time, police said Lazarus used a “watering hole” technique that automatically infected computers with malware when users visited compromised websites. The group hacked 207 computers at 61 South Korean organizations, including eight media outlets, four medical and biotech institutions and three public institutions.
“The leak of personal information belonging to a prominent domestic figure and the Lazarus hacking case are separate,” a police representative said. “We have not yet determined who was behind the hack that exposed the prominent figure’s personal information.”
BY KIM NAM-JUN [lee.jiwon10@joongang.co.kr]
This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
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