High School Sophomore Caught After Installing Malware to Steal Exam Answers... Suspicion from Friends Leads to Exposure

Gwangju Daedong High School Final Exam Answers Leaked for 4 Subjects
Malware Installed on Teacher's Laptop, Capture Files Extracted
Suspicions Raised by Friends' Report, 2 Police Officers Booked Without Detention

Gwangju Daedong High School exterior view (Photo by Yonhap News)

[Asia Economy Reporter Han Jinju] Allegations have arisen that the final exam answer sheets for second-year students at a high school in Gwangju were leaked, and it has been revealed that two students implanted malware on a teacher's laptop to extract the exam questions and answers.

According to the police and the Gwangju Metropolitan Office of Education, during the second-year first semester final exams held at Daedong High School in Gwangju from the 11th to the 13th, two students hacked teachers' computers to steal the exam answers. The Gwangju Western Police Station obtained confessions from two second-year students during the investigation and booked them without detention on charges of trespassing and obstruction of business.

Student A and others entered the teachers' office through an unlocked window and installed malicious software on the teachers' computers. They are suspected of stealing exam questions and answers by capturing the screen at regular intervals.

They leaked exams and answers for four subjects: Earth Science, Korean History, Mathematics II, and Life Science. Student A initially received perfect scores in all four subjects, but after the answers were corrected, the scores were 100 in Earth Science and Mathematics, 93 in Korean History, and 86 in Life Science.

During the final exams, Student A wrote answers in small letters at the end of the exam papers for the four subjects and tore off the parts with the answers after each exam. Classmates found this behavior suspicious, searched through the trash bin, pieced together the torn papers, and raised suspicions of answer leakage.

The malicious program was found to have been created by Student B. Using materials obtained from the internet, B added functions to create the malware, implanted it on teachers' laptops during the exam preparation period, captured exam papers and answers at regular intervals, and extracted the files to steal the exams and answers. It is known that Student B memorized all the exam answers and took the exams accordingly.

During police investigations, the students stated their motive as wanting to "do better (in studying)." So far, there is no evidence that any school staff participated in the crime. The police are considering applying additional charges for violation of the Information and Communications Network Act for creating and implanting the malware.

The school had a similar incident four years ago where entire exam papers were leaked. In 2018, all subjects' midterm and final exam questions for the third-year first semester were leaked when the administrative officer took the exam papers and delivered them to parents. The administrative officer and the parent were sentenced to prison in the first and second trials, but the then vice principal is currently serving as the principal.