Gyeonggi Office of Education, Leakage of Academic Performance Data from Four Assessments in 2019 and 2021

Im Tae-hee, Superintendent of Gyeonggi Provincial Office of Education, is holding a press conference on the nationwide joint academic achievement evaluation data leak on the 4th.

The Gyeonggi Provincial Office of Education announced on the 4th that during the investigation of the nationwide joint academic achievement evaluation score data leak incident that occurred last year, it was confirmed that score data from the 2019 and 2021 academic evaluations were also leaked.

On the same day, Superintendent Lim Tae-hee held a press conference at the provincial education office and disclosed the results of the Ministry of Education's investigation containing this information.

According to the investigation results received from the Ministry of Education on the 2nd, it was additionally revealed that data containing the names, affiliated schools, and scores of students who took the academic evaluations in April and November 2019 and April and November 2021?a total of four times?were leaked.

The provincial education office estimated the scale of the leaked data to be about 2.9 million cases based on the number of students who took the exams, as a thorough investigation into the scale of the leaked data has not yet been conducted.

The Ministry of Education's investigation was conducted on the provincial education office's academic achievement evaluation online system (GSAT), and through this investigation, the leaker has not been identified.

Whether the additionally confirmed leaked data has been distributed online or elsewhere has also not been verified. So far, the only data confirmed to have been distributed is the academic evaluation scores from November last year.

Meanwhile, it was revealed that the provincial education office had been criticized by the Personal Information Protection Commission in 2021 for negligence in personal information management.

A provincial education office official stated, "At that time, the system operated by the provincial education office was pointed out for insufficient measures to ensure the safety of personal information protection, so we completed the necessary corrective actions and notified the commission of the measures taken."

As measures to prevent recurrence of data leaks, the provincial education office proposed closing the academic achievement evaluation online system, requesting legislative amendments to strengthen penalties under the Personal Information Protection Act for reprocessing and redistribution of leaked data to the National Assembly and the Provincial Council, and establishing a cloud-based integrated system capable of securely managing and protecting the data.

Additionally, the academic evaluations scheduled for April and November this year, organized by the provincial education office, will be postponed to May and December respectively, with the Korea Institute for Curriculum and Evaluation taking charge of score processing.

Superintendent Lim Tae-hee said, "As the education office responsible for protecting students, I feel a heavy responsibility as superintendent for causing great harm and sincerely apologize. We will thoroughly investigate the related circumstances to leave no suspicion or doubt, decisively remove any problematic parts, and strictly hold those responsible accountable."