Hacker Breaches South Korean Database of Nearly All Diplomats

South Korea has been deed by a “significant” information leak that could impact each of its diplomats pursuing a breach astatine a government-run grooming academy.

A strategy that held astir 10,000 records of existent and retired diplomats is believed to person been compromised by an unidentified hacker, overseas ministry spokesperson Park Il told reporters connected Tuesday. Park didn’t corroborate however galore records had been accessed, but Yonhap News Agency reported that nary delicate information specified arsenic recognition numbers, mobile telephone numbers oregon location addresses appeared to person been affected.

“It appears that a important magnitude of information has been leaked,” Park said. “The authorities is not ruling retired immoderate possibilities, including hacking organizations down the scenes involving different countries.”

The ministry was notified by a applicable authorities bureau successful aboriginal February astir suspicious entree to the online acquisition strategy astatine the academy, Yonhap reported. The ministry unopen down the system, which has remained offline since portion an probe is nether way.

South Korea is inactive reeling from a drawstring of cybersecurity incidents, including a high-profile breach of Coupang, its starring online retailer. Last year, regulators discovered that a erstwhile worker improperly accessed idiosyncratic accusation from astir 34 cardinal accounts, oregon astir two-thirds of the country’s population, undetected for months.

Read more: South Korea Fines Coupang Record $409 Million for Data Breach

North Korean hackers person carried retired a bid of high-profile cyberattacks successful caller years, including the largest integer heist successful the past of cryptocurrency February past year.

Photograph: A machine server; photograph credit: Jason Alden/Bloomberg

Copyright 2026 Bloomberg.