South Korea: Strengthens Safety Measures for Public Systems Handling Citizen Data

In a bid to enhance the protection of personal data, South Korea’s Personal Information Protection Commission (PIPC) has recommended new safety measures for 35 public systems that handle citizen complaints. This move comes after an inspection of these systems, which identified areas that need improvement to prevent data leaks.

The systems under review included key public services such as construction and real estate management platforms, tax information systems, and education administration systems. These systems are managed by various national and local government offices.

Following the inspection, the PIPC announced the Public Institution Leakage Prevention Measures and a Personal Information Security Strengthening Plan to address vulnerabilities and prevent unauthorized access to personal data.

Key recommendations included:

• Assigning a responsible person to oversee each system.

• Implementing stronger safety protocols to secure data.

• Ensuring proper management of access rights and preventing unauthorized access by non-government personnel.

• Improving the monitoring of access logs.

• Expanding staff and resources dedicated to system security.

The PIPC emphasized that the most critical and easily implementable improvements should be prioritized by the end of 2024, with a focus on updating access rights and introducing procedures for issuing accounts to non-civil servants.

Official Press Release is available here (Language is available in Korean)