The Two Faces of the Outsourced IT Worker: Why He Stole 220,000 Files from Female Faculty PCs

Caught After Leaving Behind USB Drive
Stole Photos and Videos from 194 Female Faculty Members

An employee of an outsourced company responsible for maintaining and repairing IT equipment at schools in the Busan area has been handed over to prosecutors on charges of accessing faculty members' PCs or logged-in cloud accounts, stealing large quantities of personal photos and videos, and producing sexually explicit fake videos, commonly known as deepfake videos.

On May 7, Yonhap News reported that the Cyber Investigation Unit of the Busan Metropolitan Police Agency recently arrested and referred to prosecution a man in his 30s, identified as Mr. A, on charges including violations of the Information and Communications Network Act, the Act on Special Cases Concerning the Punishment of Sexual Crimes, and the Act on the Protection of Children and Youth against Sexual Abuse.

Photos and videos stored on Mr. A's personal PC. Busan Metropolitan Police Agency

According to police, Mr. A, while working as an employee at a company contracted to maintain and repair IT equipment at schools in Busan, is suspected of having accessed 19 schools in the region between July 2021 and September last year. During this period, he allegedly stole a total of 221,921 files containing personal photos and videos from 194 faculty members. The investigation revealed that he took advantage of moments when the faculty member who requested the PC check was away from their desk. He would access cloud accounts such as Google Photos or Naver MyBox that remained logged in on faculty PCs and transfer the personal photos and videos to his own USB drive.

All the victims have been confirmed to be female faculty members. The police also confirmed that Mr. A produced 20 fake sexual videos using the photos and videos he leaked. In addition, it was revealed that he illegally filmed under the skirts and other private areas of faculty members on 45 separate occasions. On Mr. A's PC, authorities also discovered child and youth sexual exploitation material, illegally filmed videos, and sexually explicit fake videos downloaded from adult websites. In total, police identified 533 problematic files with a combined size of 405GB.

The years-long crimes were uncovered when Mr. A left the incriminating USB drive at a school. A school official discovered the device, noticed suspicious files during a review, and alerted authorities, leading to a police investigation. Police executed search and seizure warrants at Mr. A's residence and office, securing and analyzing his mobile phone, USB drives, external hard drives, and PCs. Police stated, however, that they have not found evidence that any deepfake videos created or stored by Mr. A were distributed online.

All victims have been confirmed to be female faculty members. The police also confirmed that Mr. A produced 20 fabricated sexual videos using the leaked photos and videos. Busan Metropolitan Police Agency

This case has highlighted potential weak points in the management of outsourced personnel and personal information protection during school IT maintenance. Concerns have been raised that when external employees work alone on PC inspections or repairs without the presence of the device owner or colleagues, the risk of privacy invasion and data leakage increases significantly.

The police have recommended that the Busan Metropolitan Office of Education strengthen its information security measures. Key recommendations include setting login passwords for PCs and screensavers, logging out of NEIS, Google, KakaoTalk, and other accounts when leaving one's desk, avoiding situations where outsourced employees repair PCs alone, installing CCTV in workspaces such as faculty offices, and refraining from storing work materials in network-shared folders. A representative from the Busan Metropolitan Police Agency stated, "IT maintenance is often outsourced by schools, kindergartens, and various institutions. Given that privacy breaches can occur due to security gaps in these processes, special caution is needed."

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