Emergency Duty Alert
The interior data of nuclear power plants run by Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power were once again released through social network services (SNS).
Seventeen files which are assumed to be diagrams of nuclear plant structures were released on the afternoon of Dec. 23 by a twitter user who is presumed to have played a leading role in stealing the nuclear plant documents. This is the fifth time that confidential data of the KNHP nuclear plants has been leaked, following the same incident on Dec. 16.
The leaked content includes three compressed files, which are comprised of five diagrams of Kori Nuclear Power Plant Reactors I and II, including digital generator ventilation systems, 10 diagrams of Wolsong Nuclear Power Plant Reactors III and IV, and two other diagrams, along with a file of related news articles.
The user, who called himself (or herself) “President of the anti-nuclear reactor group” just like the last time, said, “What a perfect cyber response drill by KNHP! What good would it be for you to keep stirring us!” mocking, “We might reconsider releasing more data if you make an apology to the anti-nuclear reactor group.”
The government joint investigation task force on personal information crime, which is currently investigating the leakage of KNHP nuclear plant schematics, appraised that the assumed offender utilizes multiple IP addresses allocated through a virtual private network (VPN). The government task force is tracking down those IP addresses.
The joint investigation has reportedly conducted an in-depth analysis with company H and another vendor that provide virtual private network services, specifying a number of domestic IP locations used by the presumed offender to upload the stolen diagram of the nuclear plant on Internet blogs.
Without any clue of the nuclear plant data leakage revealed so far, anxiety is on the rise, as only two days remain until the date by which the offender demanded to shut down nuclear reactors.
Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power and the government are stating that the stolen data is not critical enough to actually affect nuclear plant operations. They claim that the safety of the plants can be assured, as the controlling network of the nuclear plant is completely isolated from the outside, making it impossible to access through the Internet.
Nevertheless, some experts point out that uneasiness remains, because the true identity of the leaker and the route and scale of the data leakage are still yet to be revealed.
KNHP stated on Dec. 23 that they are maintaining an emergency duty alert, with enhanced monitoring from their intelligence security team.