Military Manpower Administration "Prohibition on Assigning Social Service Agents to Handle Personal Information"

Jo Joo-bin, the main culprit of the Nth Room case who produced and sold illegal sexual exploitation videos on Telegram, is heading to a transport vehicle on the morning of the 25th at Jongno Police Station in Seoul to be transferred to the prosecution. Photo by Moon Ho-nam munonam@

[Asia Economy Reporter Yang Nak-gyu]The Military Manpower Administration has prohibited social service agents from handling personal information.

This measure follows the leak of personal information by Kang Mo (24, detained and indicted), a social service agent known as an accomplice of 'Doctor' Jo Joo-bin (24, detained), who is accused of producing and distributing sexually exploitative materials on the internet messenger Telegram's 'Nth Room'.

On the 3rd, the Military Manpower Administration announced that it has implemented service management guidelines across all service institutions that ban social service agents from handling personal information.

According to current social service agent management regulations, social service agents are generally prohibited from handling personal information alone. However, it was found that some service institution officials shared access and usage rights of information systems with social service agents.

Under the new guidelines, all acts such as social service agents accessing and using information systems and sharing usage rights with service institution officials are prohibited.

However, handling personal information through printed materials is allowed under strict management and supervision by responsible staff. The Military Manpower Administration plans to conduct a survey across all service institutions to check compliance with the prohibition on assigning personal information handling tasks to social service agents.

In cooperation with the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, the main agency for personal information protection, a joint investigation will be conducted to determine violations of related laws and guidelines. Based on this, the Military Manpower Administration plans to establish comprehensive measures to prevent recurrence.

Additionally, the Military Manpower Administration emphasized that personal information protection education will be further strengthened at the Social Service Training Center. Heads of service institutions must provide monthly education focusing on cases of personal information protection violations as part of the required job training for current social service agents.

Kang is known to have provided personal information of victims he identified while working as a social service agent to Jo. Kang was arrested and indicted on January 28 for accessing the district office's information system network to look up personal information of victim woman A (34) and her family, then asking Jo for 'revenge'. He is currently on trial at the Seoul Central District Court.

Earlier, the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency Cyber Safety Division announced that around 9:30 a.m. on the same day, they conducted a search and seizure at a military base in Gyeonggi Province where Lee Mo (in his 20s, nickname 'Igiya'), an accomplice of Jo, is serving.

Lee is suspected of distributing sexually exploitative materials from the Doctor's Room hundreds of times and promoting the Doctor's Room externally.

A police official stated, "We plan to seize Lee's mobile phone and other related evidence, and through analysis of the seized items, we will continue investigating whether he conspired with Jo and any additional crimes."