Fearing Hackers, Supreme Court Suspends Online Document Service

Regarding a report by Dong-A Ilbo that certified copies of registers that have been issued by the Supreme Court online are vulnerable to forgery and falsification, the government has begun to come up with pan-governmental emergency countermeasures in a bid to protect official documents from forgery.

Prime Minister Lee Hae-chan is scheduled to convene a policy coordination meeting for key administration issues at the prime minister’s residence in Samcheong-dong, Jongno-gu, Seoul at 7:30 a.m. on September 28 in order to discuss anti-forgery countermeasures.

Earlier, the Supreme Court tentatively suspended its service issuing certified copies of registers on its website (www.iros.go.kr) at 7:00 a.m. on September 27.

Yesterday morning, Prime Minister Lee sent related ministries an official document in which he ordered related officials to attend the meeting after arranging for the current state of forgery of official documents and the technical measures capable of preventing it.

This closed-door meeting will be attended by not only ministries related to the forgery of official documents, including the Ministry of Government Administration and Home Affairs (MOGAHA), the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Information and Communication, but also related officials of the Office for Government Policy Coordination and presidential secretaries.

The Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Information and Communication will report legal measures for protection from hacking, technical problems and countermeasures, respectively.

A high-ranking government official said, “The government’s plan to counter the issue of the fabrication of official documents at a pan-governmental level is due to concerns Korea might lose its image of being an IT power.”

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court said, “Since certified copies of registers are closely related to the public’s property rights, we will discontinue the online service for now.”

People who want to use this online service for civil applications are likely to suffer more inconvenience because the Supreme Court has tentatively suspended its online service following the MOGAHA’s discontinuation of its practice of issuing civil documents online on September 23.

A Supreme Court official said, “I presume that the falsifying method mentioned by Dong-A Ilbo is the method for controlling virtual printer drivers,” adding, “We plan to reopen the online service after drawing up programs capable of blocking technologies used for forgery or hacking such as this technology.”

The MOGAHA also said on the same day, “We will thoroughly check the online service system issuing civil documents in all the ministries in cooperation with specialized institutes, including the security and technology institute under the Ministry of Information and Communication.”