Yonhap reports that a passenger list for the South Korean presidential aircraft, containing Korean and English names, affiliations, titles, dates of birth and passport numbers of 168 people including President Lee Jae Myung, the first lady, ministers, presidential guards and journalists, was uploaded to malware-scanning site VirusTotal on June 2 and downloadable by paid members for about five months; police opened a formal criminal probe on November 3 and the foreign ministry reported it to the privacy watchdog [1][2]. Yonhap reports a ministry official said the leak is believed to have occurred while handling trip documents rather than through hacking, that authorities are examining an outside contractor and document exchanges between the embassy in Belgium and Belgian authorities, that the file was removed and new passports arranged, and that Seoul and Brussels discussed the matter on November 12 [2][3]. The Korea Times reports Google Cloud said it removed the data from VirusTotal at the Korean authorities' request and strongly recommends enterprise users use its Private Scanning function so sensitive data is not accidentally shared outside their organizations [4].
This event has not been officially confirmed. Content is based on media or third-party reports.
HighActiveMedia reported
Passport data of 168 on South Korean presidential flight sat exposed on VirusTotal for five months
1 min read
- Disclosed
- Nov 2, 2026
- Published
- Nov 12, 2026
- Last updated
- Nov 12, 2026
- CVSS basis
- Our assessment
- Technology
- SaaS platform
- Attack vector
- Unknown
- Impact
- Data exposure
- Actor type
- Unknown
- Motivation
- Unknown
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30-second summary
What happened
Who is affected
Industries mainly affected: Government
What to do nowOur advice
The Korea Times reports Google Cloud said it removed the data from VirusTotal at the Korean authorities' request and strongly recommends enterprise users use its Private Scanning function so sensitive data is not accidentally shared outside their organizations [4]
Timeline
Technical details
Remediation
References
Media4
- [1]Yonhap News Agency2026-11-03Accessed 2026-11-12Snapshot 2026-11-12 sha256 aee2e9c8627b
“Police said Tuesday they have launched a formal investigation into the online leak of personal information belonging to 168 individuals, including President Lee Jae Myung, his wife and Cabinet ministers.”
- [2]Yonhap News Agency2026-11-06Accessed 2026-11-12Snapshot 2026-11-12 sha256 28208489cf27
“A ministry official said the leak was believed to have occurred during the handling of documents related to the trip, rather than through hacking.”
- [3]Yonhap News Agency2026-11-12Accessed 2026-11-12Snapshot 2026-11-12 sha256 55ab1ec6ffa5
“South Korea and Belgium have discussed the leak of personal information belonging to President Lee Jae Myung and members of his entourage during his June trip to Belgium and other parts of Europe”
- [4]The Korea Times2026-11-06Accessed 2026-11-12Snapshot 2026-11-12 sha256 58c701db096a
“VirusTotal strongly recommends they use its Private Scanning function, which allows them to analyze files and URLs in a privacy-preserving fashion”
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