More Personal Information Leaks Found

There are many cases of documents on public institution homepages exposing personal information.

“K (alias), applied for the intelligence management department in the Korea Resources Corporation. Social security number 7704**-154****. TOEIC test scores 890. Family consists of father working at a big corporation, mother, and younger brother, with no family members working in a field concerned with resources.”

The homepage of Korea Resources Corporation has 2,142 social security numbers listed publicly, and still has the resumes of applicants from the year 2004 on its website. There is enough information to forge identification cards.

On the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family homepage, the personal information of 86 applicants for “women heads of family establishment funds” is accessible. Their names, social security numbers, cell phone numbers, incomes, property holdings, and reasons for filing for female family head status are all revealed on the website.

Social security numbers have also been exposed on the homepages of the Supreme Public Prosecutor`s Office and the National Police Agency. Some people have written to ask for legal advice, or to report a witnessing, and wrote down their social security numbers in the text.

Among universities and private enterprises, private universities and financial enterprises have frequently exposed personal information as well.

On the Inha University homepage, information such as, “1st grade 1class C (alias) applied for Inha University Center for Talented Children. Social security number 9805**-1168***, lives at flat*** T apartment, Hakik-dong Incheon. Parents’ cell phone number 016-8**-0***. Applied for class A” is open for viewing.

Confusion and bewilderment-

Most of the institutes that leaked personal information acknowledged the mistake and made an apology. These institutes laid the blame on “the mistake of a related department,” or “old undeleted files.”

The caretaker of a Seoul government homepage that leaked information about 4923 venture enterprise representatives, said, “After the homepage was renewed last year, we have been deleting personal information. It seems that information which has not yet been erased has been found.”

However, that sort of explanation is not enough.

Lee (alias. 42), who applied for “women heads of family establishment funds” at the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family, and had her personal information exposed, says, “Just thinking somebody else saw my family history makes me feel faint,” and, “This is a clear violation of human rights, and not a matter to go over lightly.”

Park (alias, 30), who applied for Korean Resources Corporation, says, “I’m angry at Korean Resources Corporation. Application forms that only the personnel director should be able to see have been exposed to the public.”

Experts point out that these situations are happening due to lack of understanding by the government that information must be protected.

Lim Jong-in director of Korea University Center for the Information Security Technologies said, “The biggest problem is lack of budget and policies for information security.” In reality, the budget for information security of domestic public institution is less than 5% of the whole budget for Information Technology. America is currently pouring 10.5% of the budget for IT into information security.

Ruling Uri Party member Lee Eun-young, who proposed the personal information protection law, said, “Exposure of a large amount of personal information is not the work of hackers, but the result of carelessness and dereliction of duty on behalf of the caretakers,” and, “Unless the view on personal information protection is changed, Cyber violence such as the illegal use of social security numbers in Lineage will continue to happen.

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