Police have launched an investigation into the recent hacking incidents at Kyowon, Asiana Airlines, and Shinsegae.
Park Sung-ju, head of the National Office of Investigation (NOI) at the Korean National Police Agency, said at a regular press briefing on the 19th that "the Kyowon, Asiana Airlines, and Shinsegae cases have confirmed suspicions of intrusion into information and communications networks and are currently investigating."
However, the Deputy Minister said, "Korean Air has not yet been identified as having a criminal suspicion and is under a pre-case inquiry," adding, "Whether a specific hacking group was involved requires further investigation."
Kyowon detected abnormal signs in some in-house systems on the 10th and reported indications of a breach the same day to the Korea Internet & Security Agency (KISA) and relevant investigative authorities. Kyowon tallied the number of customers with potential data exposure reported to KISA at 5.54 million, excluding duplicate subscribers.
Asiana Airlines announced that on the 25th of last month, unauthorized access to an overseas server was detected, indicating an intrusion into its in-house intranet. The damage is known to affect about 10,000 people, including employees and personnel from partner firms such as call centers. KC&D Service, a catering partner of Korean Air, also said it was attacked by an external hacker group and that some employee personal information was leaked.
Shinsegae Group also confirmed that there had been unauthorized access to its in-house intranet using a variant of malicious code. It provisionally estimated that personal information of about 80,000 employees was leaked.