Korea National Tax Service leaks seed phrase in press release, leading to $4.8 million in assets stolen

SmartContractAuditor · 2026-02-27T11:41:22+00:00

A press release from the Korean National Tax Service leaked the mnemonic phrase for a cryptocurrency hardware wallet, resulting in approximately $4.8 million worth of assets being stolen by hackers. Experts criticized the lack of cybersecurity awareness, leading to significant losses.

SmartContractAuditor

2026-02-27 11:41:22

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Odaily Planet Daily reports that the Korean National Tax Service accidentally leaked the mnemonic phrase for a cryptocurrency hardware wallet in a press release on February 26 about seizing assets from high-debt taxpayers. The press release included an uncensored photo of a Ledger wallet and handwritten mnemonic phrase.

According to the Director of the One University Blockchain Research Institute and Onchain data monitoring, this vulnerability led to an estimated theft of about $4.8 million (approximately 6.4 billion Korean won). On-chain data shows that early on the 27th, 4 million PRTG tokens from the related wallet were transferred to an anonymous address. Experts criticize that Korea’s tax authorities lack basic cybersecurity awareness, directly causing significant losses of national assets.

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