Ministry of SMEs and Startups: "Participants' Personal Information Leaked at AI Solution Provider for Second Round of 'Startup for Everyone'"
Participants' personal information leaked at private-sector AI solution provider
Names, phone numbers, and email addresses exposed
Participants' personal information was leaked at Amicus Lex, one of the AI solution providers for the second round of "Startup for Everyone."
On November 13, the Ministry of SMEs and Startups said it had confirmed that the leaked list included 818 participants in the second round of Startup for Everyone, after personal information held by the company was exposed in a cyberattack.
Amicus Lex, an AI solution provider for the second round of Startup for Everyone, detected signs of an external cyberattack on its own system at around 8:30 a.m. on November 11. An investigation later confirmed that the personal information of 20,028 people had been leaked. The information included that of participants in the second round of Startup for Everyone.
Startup for Everyone provides external AI solutions to help participants validate their ideas and commercialize them. The 50 solution providers operate AI solutions directly on their own systems, while the Ministry of SMEs and Startups subsidizes usage fees for Startup for Everyone participants. Participants use the services after consenting to the provision of the personal information required to create an account for their selected AI solution to a third party.
On November 12, the Korea Institute of Startup & Entrepreneurship Development received notice of the incident from Amicus Lex and worked with the company to identify who was affected and what information was exposed. The cyberattack exposed the names, phone numbers, and email addresses of users of AI solutions whose information was held and managed by Amicus Lex.
The Ministry of SMEs and Startups said Amicus Lex implemented technical security measures immediately after the incident, including blocking access from overseas IP addresses, and individually notified users whose information was confirmed to have been exposed at 3 p.m. on November 13.
Separately from Amicus Lex's breach notifications, the Ministry of SMEs and Startups and the Korea Institute of Startup & Entrepreneurship Development informed the affected Startup for Everyone participants about the circumstances of the incident, the information exposed, and ways to prevent secondary harm, such as smishing.
They also asked the other AI solution providers for Startup for Everyone to check the security of their own systems and their personal information management practices to prevent similar incidents.
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The Ministry of SMEs and Startups said it would work to prevent further harm while continuing to inspect and oversee all AI solution providers for Startup for Everyone to ensure they are implementing personal information protection measures, including managing access permissions and destroying personal information after its retention period expires.
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