Sogang University data breach exposes 180,000 student, staff accounts

Personal information belonging to roughly 180,000 students, alumni and staff at Sogang University was exposed in a cyberattack, the university said Saturday.

The university said it had confirmed signs that some data tied to its integrated login accounts had been leaked following an attack by an unidentified outside party. Sogang posted an apology on its website a day earlier and notified students, graduates and staff of the breach.

According to the university, the leaked information included student and staff ID numbers, names, affiliations, email addresses, mobile phone numbers and encrypted passwords for the integrated login system.

The school said no resident registration numbers or other sensitive personal data was among the information exposed, but urged all members of the university to change their passwords immediately given that the encrypted login passwords were affected.

The university said that as soon as it detected the breach, it blocked the attacking IP address, restricted access to the affected service, and separated the network to contain the intrusion. It said it was also strengthening its monitoring systems and taking further security measures to prevent additional damage.

Sogang asked students, alumni and staff to be especially wary of phone calls, emails and text messages from unclear sources, warning that such contact could be used to inflict further harm using the leaked data.

"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.

BY HYEON YE-SEUL   [jim.bulley@joongang.co.kr]