Report: Hackers Leak Personal Data of 997 North Korean Defectors

Report: Hackers Leak Personal Data of 997 North Korean Defectors

Photo: AP

Hackers have leaked the personal information of nearly 1,000 North Koreans who defected across the border to the South. 

The South Korean Unification Ministry said it discovered last week the names, birth dates, and addresses of 997 defectors had been stolen from a resettlement agency’s database through a malware-infected computer.

“The malware was planted through emails sent by an internal address,” a ministry official told reporters on condition of anonymity.

The agency in the southern city of Gumi, called the Hana center, is among 25 institutes the ministry runs around the country to help some 32,000 defectors adjust to life in the South by providing jobs, medical, and legal support.

Defectors are a source of shame for North Korea. Its state media often denounces them as “human scum” and accuses South Korean spies of kidnapping some of them.

The ministry official declined to say if North Korea was believed to have been behind the hack, or what the motive might have been, saying a police investigation was under way to determine who did it.

In the past, North Korean hackers have been accused of cyberattacks on South Korean state agencies and businesses.

North Korea stole classified documents from the South’s defense ministry and a shipbuilder last year, while a cryptocurrency exchange filed for bankruptcy following a cyberattack linked to the North.

 

[Sources: Reuters, Independent]