South Korea to change e-mail addresses of diplomats after cyber attack

SEOUL - South Korea’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs is set to change the email addresses of its diplomats after a cyber attack on the Korea National Diplomatic Academy (KNDA) exposed some of the personal information of all of its diplomats.According to industry sources on July 23, the ministry is reviewing the timing, scope and implementation details of replacing its diplomats’ email addresses following a major security breach.Carried out over a 10-month period between April 2025 and February, the cyber attack is estimated to have leaked up to 10,000 records – names, user IDs and email addresses – of KNDA users, including all South Korean diplomats.Although the leaked email addresses do not directly compromise the accounts, officials are particularly concerned they could be used in targeted phishing attacks.Such attacks could also undermine trust in official communications with foreign counterparts.Earlier in the day, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Park Il said the ministry had “advised officials to exercise caution when receiving emails from unverified senders. We are also urging officials not to use the same passwords across multiple websites, recommending unique passwords for each account and regular password changes to reduce security risks.” THE KOREA HERALD/ASIA NEWS NETWORK