Normal Routes Blocked but 'Uiharo' Left Open... Another Revealed Flaw in Vaccine Reservation System

On the 14th at 8 PM, the pre-registration for the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine for individuals aged 55 to 59 resumed, but once again, a surge in users caused connection delays. [Image source=COVID-19 Vaccination Pre-registration System]

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Chun-hee] As the pre-registration for the COVID-19 Moderna vaccine for those aged 55 to 59 resumed at 8 PM on the 14th, it has been confirmed that pre-registrations were made through abnormal channels before the official reopening.

On the 15th, the COVID-19 Vaccination Response Promotion Team responded to reporters' inquiries asking, "Please check whether it was possible to access the pre-registration system and make reservations through a separate link even before the reopening time," stating, "It is presumed that the reservations were processed through abnormal channels," and added, "We will investigate whether the link is a vulnerability and consider blocking measures for the next reservation period."

On the previous day, some internet communities posted messages around 7:30 PM, about 30 minutes before the reservation reopening, saying "Vaccine reservations are now available" and "I have already booked the vaccine for my parents." It is known that accessing the link attached to these posts led directly to the reservation information input page of the COVID-19 vaccination pre-registration system.

This page is normally accessible only after going through several pages starting from the main page. Until 8 PM on the 14th, accessing the main page only displayed a notice saying "Reservations will start shortly," and direct access to this page was not possible.

This situation appears to have occurred because the Promotion Team blocked access only to the main page until 8 PM, but left the links directly leading to detailed pages accessible.

In particular, on the 12th, when the Promotion Team first started pre-registration for those aged 55 to 59, reservations for 1.85 million people were accepted and then closed within 15 hours and 30 minutes. Even after the reservation reopening on the 14th, normal access was only possible around 10 PM, about two hours after the reopening. Those who tried to access normally had to wait endlessly.

Kim (57), residing in Jongno-gu, Seoul, said, "I missed making a reservation on the first day of vaccination pre-registration, so I tried to enter the site right at 8 PM for the additional reservation, but the site did not open, and after waiting for a long time, I barely managed to complete the reservation."

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