Police Book Three LG Uplus Officials for 'Deliberate Disposal of Hacked Servers'

Search and Seizure Conducted at Magok Headquarters on March 20

The police have booked three LG Uplus officials as suspects over allegations that they deliberately destroyed servers involved in a personal data breach incident.

On April 20, Park Jeongbo, Commissioner of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency, said at a regular press conference held at the agency's headquarters in Jongno-gu, Seoul, "Last month, we conducted a raid and search of the Magok office and related personnel, and have booked three suspects who are currently under investigation. We are analyzing the confiscated items." All three individuals booked have been confirmed as employees of LG Uplus.

LG Uplus. Yonhap News

On March 20, the Anti-Corruption Investigation Unit of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency carried out a search and seizure at the LG Uplus Magok headquarters in Gangseo-gu, Seoul. The integrated control center of LG Uplus is located at this site. The police reportedly secured server and system data, as well as materials related to the reinstallation of the operating system (OS). This was the first compulsory investigation conducted three months after an internal inquiry was launched in December last year on allegations of obstruction of official duties. Some have pointed out that the investigation was somewhat delayed.

LG Uplus is suspected of deliberately destroying and reinstalling servers believed to have been hacked, resulting in the leakage of customers' personal information, thereby making it impossible for security authorities to conduct a forensic investigation.

Previously, in July last year, the Korea Internet & Security Agency (KISA) obtained evidence of server hacking based on a white hacker's tip-off. In response, the Ministry of Science and ICT requested LG Uplus to provide the results of its own inspection. However, immediately after the request, LG Uplus discarded and reinstalled the server account privilege management (APPM) operating system, reporting that there were no traces of compromise. Nevertheless, during a subsequent joint public-private investigation, the server disposal was uncovered.

The government confirmed that LG Uplus had disposed of the 'Server 1' among the APPM 1·2 servers and requested a police investigation. It was determined that reinstalling the potentially hacked server had reset existing log records, thereby hampering the investigation. LG Uplus initially did not acknowledge the information leak as a security incident, but belatedly reported it to the authorities as such after it was pointed out during last year's National Assembly audit.

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