Resident registration numbers, passport numbers and other personal data of e-passport applicants have been leaked from the Korea Minting and Security Printing Corporation by the staff of a passport issuing machine operator, it emerged on Sunday.
The number of victims is an estimated 920,000 people, including some 4,600 civil servants and senior government officials such as the prime minister and other key ministers.
The highest security level is applied to the passport manufacturing division of KOMSCO, but the security seal was tapped.
Grand National Party lawmaker Kim Ho-yeon said Sunday that the personal information of over 920,000 people who applied for e-passports between August and November last year was leaked by the staff of the contracting firm.
According to the KOMSCO security regulations, the personal information of passport applicants must be deleted from its electronic server as soon as the passports are made. But employees of the passport machine company sent it to company headquarters every week saying they were trying to establish the optimal interval for changing parts of the passport manufacturing machines.
