Over 1,000 documents wrongly issued from govt portal in S. Korea

In a cyber incident, more than 1,000 civil documents were wrongly issued from the government’s online civil service portal called ‘Government 24’, leading to the leak of personal information, the interior ministry said on Sunday.

The documents — 646 graduation and other certificates, and 587 corporate tax payment certificates — were issued under the name of the wrong individual or business representative, exposing sensitive personal information, including names, addresses and resident registration numbers, according to the ministry.

The services have been restored to normal, it said, blaming the error on the program developer’s mistake, reports Yonhap news agency.

The ministry said the wrongly issued documents have been deleted and those whose personal information was leaked have been informed via phone or mail.

It also said the cases were reported to the Personal Information Protection Commission under relevant regulations.

“We currently do not know the details of the leak and are looking into how far the leaked information has spread,” a commission official said. “It’s unclear yet when the results of the investigation will come out.”