--- title: Government Accelerates Handling of Personal Data Leaks and Breaches url: https://www.dataloco.com/en/government-accelerates-handling-of-personal-data-leaks-and-breaches published: 2026-10-06T13:22:04+00:00 language: en section: Privacy source: https://zdnet.co.kr/view/?no=20261003222659 organizations: ZDNet Korea publisher: Dataloco --- # Government Accelerates Handling of Personal Data Leaks and Breaches The Personal Information Protection Commission announced a new plan to process personal data leak and breach incidents more quickly and professionally. The initiative aims to build an investigative framework that offers greater transparency and reliability to citizens and businesses. This response comes as artificial intelligence technology spreads and attacks targeting personal information become more sophisticated and intelligent, leading to a rapid increase in data leakage incidents. According to the commission, personal information leak reports rose from 167 cases in 2022 to 318 cases in 2023, and are projected to reach 447 cases in 2025. In the first half of 2026, 432 cases were reported, approaching the full-year total for 2025. Large-scale leaks affecting millions to tens of millions of individuals continue to occur among telecommunications, platform, and distribution companies that hold extensive personal data. The commission's measures include five key tasks: strategic incident management, rapid processing procedures, enhanced investigative transparency, capacity strengthening, and disclosure of processing status. Important incidents will be investigated within 12 months, general incidents within six months, and minor incidents within three months. Major incidents are defined as leaks affecting over one million people, issues of significant public interest, or breaches of critical public systems. Immediate response teams will be formed to assess the scope of leaks, preserve relevant evidence, and verify notification procedures to prevent further damage. General incidents will be categorized by type to standardize violations and penalties, enabling batch processing. Analysis of 621 resolved leak cases showed that private sector breaches were primarily hacking (235), negligence (192), and system errors (51), while public sector breaches were primarily negligence (79), hacking (33), and system errors (9). Minor incidents will receive exemption from initial fines for small and medium enterprises, with technical support to improve root causes and prevent recurrence. A 2.2 billion won budget has been allocated for 2027 to support consulting and preventive measures. To reduce meeting burdens and speed up processing, the commission plans to expand oversight beyond penalty cases to include small fines, handling them through subcommittees. The initial focus will be on cases with expected fines of up to one hundred million won, with plans to gradually increase the threshold. This approach is expected to resolve 54 to 85 percent of violation cases through subcommittees, enabling faster enforcement and corrective actions. Among 200 penalty cases, 107 (54 percent) involved fines under one hundred million won, 136 (68 percent) under three hundred million won, and 169 (85 percent) under ten billion won. Procedural transparency will be enhanced to protect the rights of investigated parties, with early decisions on whether to initiate investigations and regular updates every six or twelve months. For complex cases, preliminary explanations of findings will be provided to improve understanding and acceptance, and additional opportunities for formal feedback will be offered after notifications. Training programs will be tailored to sectors, and basic training for new investigators will be strengthened. Core investigators will be designated as specialist officers to ensure continuity and expertise, reducing disruptions from rotating positions. The commission will also share data through the KISA reporting system, the investigative information system, and forensic laboratories to improve efficiency. A long-term plan includes building an artificial intelligence search database for investigative use. Public disclosures will expand to include annual and institutional case volumes, average investigation durations, litigation status, and major leak examples, as well as detailed fine calculation methods involving severity assessments, mitigation rates, applicable rates, and newly introduced investment mitigation rates. The initiative seeks to ensure transparency for data subjects and help businesses and public institutions prevent similar incidents and raise protection standards. The commission's chair, Song Kyung-hee, emphasized that handling all cases uniformly is impractical as leaks become more frequent and complex, and that resources should be allocated based on incident importance and characteristics. She stated that sufficient capacity will be devoted to major cases, minor cases will be processed swiftly, and the process will be made clearer and more predictable, with results publicly disclosed to build a fair and transparent investigative system. ## This story in other languages - [العربية](https://www.dataloco.com/ar/alhkom-taazz-agraaaat-altaaaml-maa-hoadth-tsrb-albyanat-alshkhsy) - [Français](https://www.dataloco.com/fr/les-autorites-renforcent-la-gestion-des-incidents-de-fuite-et-de-violation-de-donnees-personnelles) - [Svenska](https://www.dataloco.com/sv/sydkoreanska-myndigheten-infor-snabbare-hantering-av-personuppgiftslackor) - [Polski](https://www.dataloco.com/pl/rzadowe-plany-szybszego-reagowania-na-wycieki-danych-osobowych-i-zwiekszenia-przejrzystosci-postepowan)