Police to investigate breach of Ewha Womans University student data

The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency will summon officials of Ewha Womans University in an investigation into a data breach affecting approximately 80,000 former students.

Logo of Ewah Womans University [EWHA WOMANS UNIVERSITY]

Police announced Monday that they are investigating a data breach that compromised the personal information of approximately 80,000 Ewha Womans University students.

According to the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency’s Cyber Investigation Bureau, investigators are setting up dates to summon university officials for questioning.

According to Ewha, 22 categories of information were compromised in the breach, including the phone numbers, resident registration numbers, addresses and personal details of some students’ parents or legal guardians.

On Friday, the university posted an apology letter regarding the leak on its website, where it said that it cut off “unusual access” to the school database immediately upon detection, yet still failed to stop the extraction of personal information of students who matriculated between 1982 and 2002.

Ewha Womans University is currently operating a service that details for the affected students what information was leaked as well as a counseling service to address concerns.

"We have reported the incident to the Ministry of Education and the Personal Information Protection Commission, and are currently working with related agencies to prevent further potential damage,” said a school official.

Past and present Ewha students have turned to Everytime, an anonymous community for university students, to vent their anger over the breach.

One commenter said that her mother’s personal information, including her resident registration number and address, had been leaked, and another chastised the school’s cybersecurity system for “being too vulnerable.”

In a similar case on July 28, the personal information of over 320,000 students and graduates of Jeonbuk National University was leaked.

The university said that the names, phone numbers, email addresses and other details of students and graduates had been exposed in the breach despite regular inspections.

“We have faithfully complied with information security inspections conducted by the Ministry of Education every year,” an official at Jeonbuk National University said at the time of the incident. “We will review and address any complaints or suggestions from students.”

BY KIM MIN-YOUNG [kim.minyoung5@joongang.co.kr]