South Korea is launching a self-isolation app designed to monitor patients in quarantine. However, just like how every app creation is not perfect, researchers found a major flaw, Daily Mail Online reported.

Developed countries like South Korea are placed in more pressure when it comes to mitigating COVID-19. The country uses comprehensive tests, tracing, and isolation measures to lessen the individuals getting infected with the virus. 

Security researchers spotted a flaw in the app, particularly on its proximity to hackers who can access information easily, the New York Times said. Furthermore, hackers can be able to pretend but in fact are making unauthorized access and trips outside the quarantine facilities. 

App investigation 

For instance, Seoul, South Korea-based security researcher Frédéric Rechtenstein utilized this self-isolation app to monitor his very own quarantine for 14 days after traveling. However, he instead scrutinized the app and how it works, surprised by what he found. 

He found out that the user IDs were not generated randomly, and may be guessable, which enabled him to "encroach" on private data, as part of the research. Furthermore, the app's code in the encryption key, "1234567890123456" within the code is making it way easier for the hacker to decrypt the data anytime they want to gain access. 

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Apologizing

The Korean officials have already apologized for the breach, stating that the issue might be due to the app implementation timeline. Winitech, the developers of the app, stated that staffers may have insufficient expertise and training to ensure that the app is at its most secure. 

Hong Seong-bok from Winitech went on to explain that the government's request on features such as adding more surveillance elements may have slowed down the team to complete the app creation, including finding bugs and having to fix them. 

However, now, an update in iOS and in Android has already fixed these flaws. More than these, officials are claiming that despite this discovery, there has been no evidence showing that the system has actually been breached, the report added.

COVID-19 pandemic

The plot thickens on finding a cure out of the pandemic. As of press time, there are now over 14 million infected worldwide. This self-isolation app is part of the efforts to curb the spread of the disease, among with several others in the globe. 

The race to find the vaccine or cure is even another story. For instance, U.S. officials recently charged Chinese nationals for allegedly stealing and hacking through the vaccination system for COVID-19, CNBC reported.

Correspondent Amada Macias wrote, "According to the 11-count indictment, Li Xiaoyu, 34, and Dong Jiazhi, 33, conducted a global hacking campaign for more than a decade. The indictment alleges that the defendants were able to successfully steal terabytes of data from the United States as well as Australia, Belgium, Germany, Japan, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Spain, South Korea, Sweden and the United Kingdom."

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