Jo Joo-bin Claims He Can't Remember His Cell Phone Password

Change Mobile Phone Password to Over 20 Characters Complexly Every Day

Prosecutors Push for Additional Charges of Organized Crime Group Offense

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporters Song Seung-yoon, Lee Jung-yoon] Jo Joo-bin (24), who is accused of producing and distributing sexual exploitation materials in the Telegram 'Baksa Bang,' told the police that he "does not remember" his cellphone password, causing difficulties for the police in securing evidence.

According to a compilation of Asia Economy's coverage on the 16th, Jo claimed during the investigation after being transferred from the police to the prosecution that he was not deliberately withholding the cellphone password but genuinely could not remember it.

Jo set the password for the Galaxy S9 hidden in the sofa at his home to be more than 20 characters long and changed it daily. This appears to be because he was constantly afraid that his crimes would be discovered. Regarding the iPhone, Jo said he could not remember the entire password and only provided part of it to the police.

During a search of Jo’s residence, the police seized nine cellphones along with about 20 digital devices including laptops and PCs. No meaningful evidence related to Jo’s crimes was found on seven of the nine cellphones. The police believe that the iPhone Jo had on him during the search and the Galaxy S9 hidden in the sofa contain crime-related data, and digital forensic work has continued even after the case was handed over to the prosecution.

Meanwhile, the prosecution is pushing for additional charges against Jo and his accomplices under the crime of organizing a criminal group. This depends on how quickly the police can unlock the two cellphones. The police attempted to decrypt the passwords using equipment from Cellebrite, an Israeli-based decryption company, and expected to unlock the phones by inputting the partial passwords provided by Jo, but it is reported that they ultimately failed.

They also tried to check some contents by inserting the SIM cards from the cellphones into inactive devices, but since the information remaining on the SIM cards was limited, no meaningful clues were found.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.