Imagine an invisible person is behind you watching all you do on the Internet, like searching, chatting and file downloading. Horrible as it may sound, this was what the National Intelligence Service allegedly did to a pro-unification civic group leader.
As if that was not enough, the NIS agents wiretapped all communications in cyberspace, not just of the suspected violator of the anticommunist law but of his family members and coworkers who shared the same Internet lines with him, in what experts call “packet eavesdropping.” Could one brush it aside as just another shady aspect of “IT Korea”?
Even more astonishing was nobody knew about the Internet bugging until the prosecution presented wiretapped contents as evidence during a trial. Most shocking of all, the top spy agency says its agents acted with court warrants and committed no legal violations, reaffirming the nation’s far too porous legal system to protect communication secrecy and other privacy.
Read more of this Op-Ed The Korea Times.