Personal Information Leaked from State Agencies Reached 3.91 Million Cases Last Year, a Sixfold Increase in Two Years

"Central Administrative Agencies, the National Assembly, Courts, the Constitutional Court, and the National Election Commission, among other public institutions, lack dedicated personnel and budget."

The number of personal information leak cases from state agencies (constitutional and central administrative agencies) has nearly sextupled in the past two years, it has been revealed.

Personal Information Leaks from Public Institutions... "Responsibility Must Be Strengthened" (CG) [Provided by Yonhap News TV]

According to data submitted by Rep. Lee Jeong-moon of the Democratic Party of Korea from the Personal Information Protection Commission on the 24th, the scale of personal information leaks from state agencies (public institutions) increased from 650,000 cases in 2022 to 3.52 million cases in 2023, reaching 3.91 million cases last year.

Based on the number of reported cases, there were 23 in 2022, 41 in 2023, and 104 last year.

As of July this year, 72 cases have already been reported, and a total of 910,000 cases of personal information have been leaked.

Public institutions, as defined by the Personal Information Protection Act, encompass constitutional institutions and central administrative agencies, including the National Assembly, courts, the Constitutional Court, agencies handling administrative affairs of the National Election Commission, and central administrative agencies and their affiliated bodies.

 [Provided by Rep. Lee Jeong-moon's office. Reproduction and database prohibited]

It is analyzed that the number of reported cases has sharply increased between 2023 and 2024 following the amendment to the Personal Information Protection Act in September 2023, which mandates reporting even a single case of leakage of unique identification information such as resident registration numbers or leaks due to illegal access like hacking.

Among public institutions that have had the largest scale of personal information leaks in cases decided by the Personal Information Protection Commission over the past five years is the Gyeonggi Provincial Office of Education, which received a disposition in July 2023. A total of 2.97 million cases of personal information were leaked.

Following that were the Korea Social Welfare Council (1.35 million cases) in September 2024, Kyungpook National University (700,000 cases) in October 2023, Seoul National University Hospital (680,000 cases) in May 2023, and Chonbuk National University (320,000 cases) in June of this year, in that order.

The total amount of personal information held by public institutions is 75.7 billion cases, including 30.3 billion from central administrative agencies, 1.2 billion from metropolitan local governments, 4.4 billion from basic local governments, and 2.9 billion from educational administrative agencies.

However, the management personnel and budget are severely insufficient.

According to the preliminary submission data for the 2024 Personal Information Protection Level Assessment by the Personal Information Protection Commission, 83 institutions (10.4%) had a personal information protection budget of less than 10 million KRW.

This calculation is based on the content of the preliminary questionnaires submitted by each institution.

Rep. Lee emphasized, "The reality of severe lack of dedicated personnel and budget, even in public institutions that hold hundreds of billions of sensitive personal information of citizens, is extremely serious. As personal information protection is not an option but a necessity, institutional improvement to mandate the securing of dedicated organizations and budgets is urgently needed." Yonhap News