SoKor: N. Korea hack group steals massive amount of court records

A huge chunk of the data leaked includes detailed personal information, such as names, resident registration numbers, financial records and others, according to the probe results. (File photo: Clint Patterson/Unsplash)

SEOUL – A North Korean hacking group had stolen a massive amount of personal information from a South Korean court computer network for about two years, probe results showed Saturday.

A total of 1,014 gigabytes (GB) worth of data and documents were leaked from Seoul’s court computer network between January 2021 and February 2023 by the hacking group, presumed to be Lazarus, according to the joint probe by the police, the prosecution and the National Intelligence Service.

A huge chunk of the data leaked includes detailed personal information, such as names, resident registration numbers, financial records and others, according to the probe results.

The three agencies concluded that the hacking was conducted by North Korea given the types of malicious codes used for the hacking, settlements for leased servers with crypto assets and IP addresses.

The joint investigation team has identified only 5,171 files worth 4.7 GB, or 0.5 percent of the total leaked files, exposing the loopholes of the judiciary security management and response system.

To prevent further damage, the team provided the leaked files to the court administration and notified the victims of the leakage.

The police investigation began last December as the court carried out its own internal probe into the huge data leak in the first 10 months after the computer network detected and blocked malicious code. (Yonhap)