S. Korea’s Yonsei University portal breach affects 10,000 local, international students and faculty

SEOUL – The personal information of some 10,000 current and former students, as well as faculty members, was leaked following a cyberattack on South Korean university Yonsei’s online portal system.Yonsei University’s Office of Information and Communications confirmed the breach in a notice issued on Oct 22.Compromised information included student and faculty identification numbers, names, affiliations, mobile phone numbers, e-mail addresses and passwords.The university said it became aware of the breach around 7pm local time (6pm Singapore time) on Oct 20 and subsequently shut down the affected server. It then detected a second attempted breach at 10.04am on Oct 21.Yonsei confirmed to The Korea Herald that some international students were among those affected.The university said the breach did not involve sensitive personal information, such as resident registration numbers, alien registration numbers and passport numbers.Yonsei has blocked the source of the breach and requested an investigation by the authorities. However, a Yonsei official said the number of affected students is expected to rise.Affected individuals will be able to check which personal details were compromised through a notice on the university’s website starting at 1pm on Oct 22.“We sincerely apologise for the concern caused by this incident,” the university said, pledging to take measures to prevent similar breaches. THE KOREA HERALD/ASIA NEWS NETWORK