Over 5.05 million resident registration numbers exposed in South Korean data breaches
More than 5.05 million resident registration numbers were leaked across 130 breach cases in South Korea, prompting enforcement actions by regulators.
Data submitted to the Personal Information Protection Commission and the Financial Supervisory Service reveal that 130 enforcement actions were taken for resident registration number leaks from 2021 through September 2026. Excluding three incidents where the breach size could not be determined, the remaining cases involved 5.05 million exposed registration numbers, though the same individual's data may appear multiple times.
The National Center for the Rights of the Child recorded the largest number of exposures at 1.16 million across three incidents, followed by Yanolja with 1 million and NHN Wetoo with 524,620. Additional breaches involved Lotte Card, Duo Information, and LG Uplus, among others. More than 2.78 million records of connecting information and duplication information were also disclosed, with Yanolja, Modetour Network, and Lotte Card responsible for the majority of those exposures.
Why it matters
The scale of personal ID leaks highlights ongoing data security challenges in South Korea.
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