By Bae Ji-sook
Staff Reporter

Personal information of more than 4,500 students and professors at Seoul National University was leaked online and has been available to anonymous people.

According to the school, its French literature department uploaded an article in May giving notice of mandatory reserve force training on its Web site. However, a Microsoft Excel file of 4,500 males subject to the training at the school was attached to it along with their names, mobile phone number, military serial number and birthday.

The information was originally kept by the reserve force regiment to update the contact information since many changed their phone numbers, the school said.

The school said that an assistant to the department has mistakenly uploaded the list and expressed regret. It is investigating where and how the leaked information was used.

The case comes after public concern over personal information leakage has been rising.
Online auction site www.auction.co.kr was hacked to expose the personal data of 10 million members in February. Oil refinery GS Caltex had its information on 11 million customers stolen and leaked in September.

bjs@koreatimes.co.kr