Five employees at a state-run cybersecurity institute repeatedly accessed StarCraft game servers while their supervisors were away on vacation or business trips in 2024, according to a lawmaker Monday.
According to Rep. Hwang Jung-a of the Democratic Party of Korea, employees at the National Security Research Institute logged on to StarCraft’s Battle.net service between September and December 2024.
The records showed a maximum of eight hours and 53 minutes of access in a single day and more than 90 hours of total access time for an employee.
The employees took advantage of the fact that their workplace, the Cybersecurity Training and Exercise Center, was located separately from the institute’s headquarters and used an external network for training. This allowed them to access external game servers without being blocked.
Some continued to access the external network even after the experimental internet connection was blocked in December 2024.
The incident came to light after another employee reported it through the Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute’s anonymous reporting system. The institute oversees the cybersecurity body.
The employees involved reportedly said they had accessed the network for entertainment after a major event, but denied spending all of their time online playing games.
All five received reprimands, the lightest disciplinary measure under the State Public Officials Act, and had annual paid leave deducted in proportion to the time they had spent logged on.
Meanwhile, Hwang said protections for internal whistleblowers had been inadequate, citing a report that a manager of the employees involved had raised their voice at the person who filed the complaint.
"Repeatedly accessing game servers while taking advantage of their managers’ absence is a serious lapse in discipline for employees tasked with protecting the nation’s cybersecurity," Hwang said.
"Along with thorough oversight of employees’ conduct and strict accountability, the institute must review its safeguards to ensure that internal whistleblowers do not suffer disadvantages."
forestjs@heraldcorp.com