The Chosun witnessed an Internet security firm forge documents of the National Tax Service and the Human Resources Development Service, a university graduation certificate and a TOEIC score report within minutes.
Following the lead of the Ministry of Government Administration and Home Affairs, the Supreme Court has now also stopped issuing official documents via the Internet. Almost all documents issued online from government and civil institutions can be manipulated or forged, security experts say. Until last week at least 78 major documents were issued online by district and municipal governments, the Supreme Court, the Ministry of Government Administration, and the National Tax Service. A comprehensive effort will be needed to make all of them forgery-proof.
The security firm used a program easily obtained on the Internet to alter the name, social security number and the amount of tax imposed before printing out a National Tax Service document. It took less than half an hour to erase the first “2” from the income of W2.316 million (US$23,160) entered on the online document, and print it out as W3.16 million.
The TOEIC score transcript issued online by the International Communication Foundation was manipulated with equal ease.
The program used was not designed for the purpose of falsifying documents, but it is so easy to master that anyone can apply it for illegal purposes.
Government agencies may have been aware of the threat when they started setting up e-government in 2003. An official who took part in building the system for the Ministry of Government Administration said the possibility of forgery was detected during the process, and tight checks were devised to counter it. But Internet security experts say there is a big flaw in the system, and a full-scale overhaul is urgently needed.
Quelle: The Chosun Ilbo, 27.09.2005
