Court Recognizes Hacking Damage... "Lawsuit Documents Leaked to North Korea-Linked Group"

Unprecedented Judiciary Network Hacking... Specific Scale Unconfirmed
Documents Submitted by Litigation Parties Presumed Leaked

A group suspected to be a North Korean hacking organization has infiltrated the domestic judiciary's computer network and stolen personal information data. The Court Administration Office belatedly acknowledged this fact and issued an apology.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

On the 4th, Cheon Dae-yeop, head of the Court Administration Office, stated in a notice on the court's website, "It has been confirmed that an attacker, presumed to be related to North Korea, infiltrated the judiciary's computer network using advanced hacking techniques and likely leaked internal court data and documents externally," adding, "We apologize for causing concern and inconvenience to the public."

Cheon added, "The judiciary cannot hide its dismay at the gravity of this matter," and said, "To prevent such incidents from recurring, we are conducting a comprehensive review of the judiciary's computer network and are establishing comprehensive measures to strengthen security capabilities, including reorganizing the responsible organizations."

Won Ho-shin, director of the Judicial Informatization Office, also posted on the court's internal network (CourtNet) explaining the details of the leak and future countermeasures. According to an in-depth investigation jointly conducted by the Court Administration Office and security agencies such as the National Intelligence Service, infiltration of the judiciary's computer network occurred before January 2021. The attack techniques matched those used by Lazarus, a North Korean hacking group.

The hackers exploited vulnerabilities in the court's virtual PCs and servers to infiltrate the internal network and are estimated to have stolen a significant amount of computer data. However, it has not been determined which specific data were stolen through the hacking. Director Won stated that only some of the file lists that the hacking group attempted to leak were successfully restored. Some of these lists include 26 documents containing sensitive information such as personal rehabilitation and rehabilitation initiation applications, resident registration abstracts, and local tax payment certificates.

Director Won said, "We will make every effort to expand the maximum security facilities and personnel commensurate with the importance of the judiciary's computer network and to operate it stably," adding, "We deeply apologize once again for causing great concern and inconvenience to all members of the court family."

This is the first time the judiciary's computer network has been hacked. The Court Administration Office first detected a hacking attempt in February last year and reportedly prepared an internal report under the name of the Computer Information Management Bureau in April. Although the hacking was kept confidential externally, the infiltration was partially acknowledged after media reports in November last year, and an apology was belatedly issued this time. At that time, regarding the leak of litigation documents, the position was only that it was "not confirmed," but later the possibility of some litigation document leaks was acknowledged.

Some have claimed that the Court Administration Office provided false explanations. The civic group Jayu Daehan Hogukdan has filed a complaint with the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office against former head of the Court Administration Office (Supreme Court Justice) Kim Sang-hwan and computer personnel on charges including falsification and use of false official documents, and the case is currently pending.

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