N.K. hacks university hospital intranet, steals personal info of patients in 2021

SEOUL, May 10 (Yonhap) -- North Korea hacked into the intranet of Seoul National University Hospital (SNUH) in 2021, and stole personal information of about 830,000 patients and workers, police said Wednesday.

A North Korean hacking organization penetrated SNUH's intranet between May and June 2021 via seven domestic and overseas computer servers, and stole the personal data, according to findings by the National Police Agency.

The origin of the internet protocol address and the method of address laundering used in the attack matched those of North Korean hacking groups used in their previous hacking attacks, officials said.

Police have yet to identify the organization, but officials presumed the state-backed North Korean hacker group Kimsuky might have been behind the hacking attack. Kimsuky is widely known for its 2014 hacking of Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power Co., a South Korean power generation agency.

Officials presumed the latest attack may have been aimed at stealing personal information of high-profile figures who got treatment at the hospital.

Among those whose personal information was leaked, data of some 2,000 SNUH workers had been stored in a server used by the hacker group, the police also said.

But no further damage, like the use of such information for criminal purposes, has been reported, the officials said.

pbr@yna.co.kr
(END)