South Korean National Tax Service Leaks Mnemonic Phrase in Press Release, Leading to $4.8 Million in Assets Stolen

Odaily News: On February 26, the South Korean National Tax Service inadvertently leaked the mnemonic phrase of a cryptocurrency hardware wallet in a press release announcing the seizure of assets from high-value tax delinquents. The press release featured an uncensored photo showing a Ledger wallet along with a handwritten mnemonic phrase.

According to monitoring by the Blockchain Research Institute at Ilshin University and Onchain data, this vulnerability led to approximately $4.8 million (around 6.4 billion Korean won) in assets being suspectedly stolen by hackers. On-chain data shows that in the early hours of the 27th, 4 million PRTG tokens from the related wallet were transferred to an anonymous address. Experts criticized the South Korean tax authorities for lacking basic cybersecurity awareness, which directly resulted in significant losses of state assets.