On March 29, 2023, The Lock Bit ransomware gang announced the hack of the South Korean National Tax Service. The group added the South Korean agency to its Tor leak site and announced the release of stolen data by April 1st, 2023 in case the ransom was not paid.
The National Tax Service (NTS) which is mainly in charge of the assessment and collection of internal taxes was established as an external organization of the Ministry of Finance on March 3, 1966. The major functions of National Tax Service are:
The deadline has come and the group has announced the publication of the stolen information.
At the time of this writing the group has yet to publish the stolen data, however, if the hack was real, the stolen data poses a severe risk to the privacy and security of South Korean citizens.
Tax Service agencies collect the personal and financial information of citizens, such data can be exploited by threat actors to carry out a broad range of fraudulent activities, including financial scams and identity theft.
Lockbit continues to be one of the most active ransomware gangs, in March the group added 100 new victims to its Tor leak site.
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(SecurityAffairs – Lockbit ransomware gang, The South Korean National Tax Service)