Jeonbuk National University hit by cyberattack, data breach affecting over 300k people
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Jeonbuk National University (JBNU) recently experienced a significant data breach affecting 322,425 individuals, including active students, graduates, and enrollees in its Continuing Education Center. The breach was linked to the university's online system, "Oasis".
Jeonbuk National University (JBNU) is a flagship national university located in Jeonju, South Korea. Established in 1947, JBNU is offering a wide range of undergraduate and graduate programs across its 17 colleges and 14 graduate schools.
The university identified three hacking attempts on Sunday 28th of July 2024, occurring at 3 a.m., 10 p.m., and 11:20 p.m. The critical breach took place during the second attempt, which lasted for six hours. By Monday 29th at 1 p.m., JBNU had implemented immediate security measures, blocking illegal access from IP addresses traced to Japan and Hong Kong.
The breach exposed a vast array of personal information, with 74 categories of data compromised for students and graduates and 29 categories for Continuing Education Center enrollees. The compromised data includes:
- Names
- National identification numbers
- Mobile numbers
- Email addresses
- Residential addresses
- Academic details
The extent of the breach was further highlighted when a file containing names, majors, and school ID numbers of approximately 4,700 students was discovered to be searchable on Google.
The nature of the attack is not disclosed.
JBNU is working closely with the Ministry of Education’s Cyber Security Center and Jeonbuk Provincial Police Agency to investigate the breach and has set up a dedicated webpage for individuals to verify which information was leaked and to report any damages.
Afected students have expressed significant distress and dissatisfaction with the university's handling of the breach. Many feel that the damages caused by the exposure of their personal information cannot be fully mitigated.
