It was confirmed on the 18th that a spam email disguised as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was sent in bulk through the startup account "AlSquare."
Established in 2009, the proptech (real estate + technology) startup AlSquare provides commercial real estate information based on real estate data and IT solutions. To date, it has attracted cumulative investments of 113.7 billion won (Series C) and is on the verge of becoming a unicorn (an unlisted startup valued at over 1 trillion won).
Industry sources indicate that at around 8:40 a.m. on the same day, an email titled "Your Social Security Statement is ready" was sent from the official AlSquare email account, appearing to be from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Korea.
Upon clicking the email, it stated, "Your Social Security Statement is ready for review and download," adding that "this document contains important details regarding your income records and the benefits you may receive under the Social Security program managed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Korea."
Along with this, a download link to check the statement and guidance email (@mofa.go.kr) were written with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs domain. It is presumed to be a phishing email that induces the download of an infected file disguised as a statement and phone calls to spam contacts.
In response, AlSquare sent an email to customers around 10 a.m., stating, "It has been confirmed that unintended spam emails were sent through our email account," and advised, "If you received this email, do not open it, delete it immediately, and absolutely do not click on any links."
A company official noted in a conversation with JoongAng Biz, "AlSquare sends newsletters through the startup "Stevie’s" solution, and it has been determined that the account's ID and password were hacked," adding, "Emails were sent to about 40,000 corporate customers, and we are receiving reports of damages resulting from this incident."
He added, "We are doing our utmost internally to prevent further damages, including blocking the Stevie account."