Court Rules "Restriction on Vaccine Company Bidding for Concealing 'Defense Network Hacking Incident' Is Justified"

[Asia Economy Reporter Seongpil Cho] A computer virus vaccine development company, which was restricted from participating in government bids due to the 2016 defense network hacking incident, filed a lawsuit challenging the sanction but lost.

On the 25th, according to the legal community, the Seoul Administrative Court Administrative Division 1 (Chief Judge Jonghwa Ahn) ruled against plaintiff A, a vaccine development company, in the lawsuit requesting the cancellation of the unfair business operator sanction imposed by the Public Procurement Service. The court stated, "Company A failed to fulfill contractual obligations by not informing the Ministry of National Defense despite being aware of the hacking incident," and added, "Considering the importance of the vaccine business, there is a significant need to restrict the plaintiff's participation in contracts with the state for a certain period."

Previously, from 2014 to 2017, Company A participated in the 'Virus Prevention System Construction Project' promoted by the Cyber Command of the Republic of Korea Armed Forces and signed development contracts worth a total of 1.5 billion KRW with the Ministry of National Defense. However, between July and September 2016, an unidentified hacker infiltrated the defense network, causing military data leakage. The Ministry of National Defense held Company A responsible and requested the Public Procurement Service to restrict its bidding eligibility. The Public Procurement Service accepted this and restricted Company A's bidding participation for six months, leading Company A to file the lawsuit.

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