Sogang University in Seoul has suffered a cyberattack that exposed personal information belonging to roughly 180,000 students, alumni, faculty members, and staff.
The university said an unidentified external party gained unauthorized access to its integrated login system, resulting in the exposure of personal information associated with a large number of accounts. The incident was detected on August 14, three days after the attack occurred, according to South Korean news outlet Korea JoongAng Daily.
The compromised information included student and employee ID numbers, names, affiliations, email addresses, mobile phone numbers, and encrypted passwords used for the university's integrated login system. Sogang said resident registration numbers and other sensitive personal information were not affected.
Former South Korean President Park Geun-hye is also believed to be among those affected. Park graduated from Sogang University in 1974 with a degree in electronic engineering, and her university student ID had previously become public during her 2007 presidential campaign. Reports said entering that ID into a website established to check for affected records confirmed that her information was included in the exposed data.
Following the discovery, Sogang blocked the IP address used in the attack, restricted access to the affected service, and separated the relevant network to contain the intrusion. The university also reported the incident to South Korea's Personal Information Protection Commission and the education ministry.
The university said it is reviewing vulnerabilities in its internal servers and working with an external cybersecurity company to strengthen monitoring and prevent further damage. It has also urged students, alumni, and staff to change their passwords immediately because encrypted login credentials were among the exposed information.
Sogang warned that the leaked information could be used in follow-up attacks, including phishing attempts and social engineering. Students, graduates, and employees have been advised to be cautious of unexpected phone calls, emails, and text messages from unknown sources.
“We are taking this matter very seriously and will fundamentally review and strengthen our systems to prevent similar incidents from happening again,” the university said.
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