Tasked with protecting national security, five NSRI employees logged into 'StarCraft' for 90 hours on the job—and received only reprimands

[Financial News] It has emerged that five employees of the National Security Research Institute (NSR), which is responsible for national cybersecurity, were caught playing 'StarCraft' during work hours but received only reprimands, a minor disciplinary measure.
According to Yonhap News on the 12th, this was confirmed in documents obtained from NSR, an institute affiliated with the Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI), by Rep. Hwang Jeong-a of the Democratic Party of Korea, who serves on the Science, ICT, Broadcasting, and Communications Committee of the National Assembly of South Korea. The five are employees of NSR's Cybersecurity Training Center, part of a government-funded research institute specializing in information security and cybersecurity.
Investigators found that between September and December 2024, while administrators were away on leave or business trips, the employees used work PCs and other devices to log into Battle.net, the 'StarCraft' game server, for as many as 90 hours or more.
One employee was found to have logged in for as long as 8 hours and 53 minutes in a single day, and another for 7 hours and 21 minutes. Some employees reportedly reconnected using the internal local network after the experimental internet line was blocked in December that year.
The Cybersecurity Training Center is located in a separate nearby building, away from NSR's headquarters in Yuseong-gu, Daejeon. The employees took advantage of the fact that access to game servers was not blocked when they used an external training line.
The matter came to light after an employee at the same center reported it through ETRI's whistleblower portal.
The employees who were caught said they logged into the game after the suggestion was made to unwind following a major event, and explained that they had not actually played the game for the entire time they were connected to the server.
NSR convened a disciplinary committee and reprimanded all five employees, a minor disciplinary measure. It determined that a pay cut was warranted for the employee with the longest connection time, who was also found to have other issues, including improper use of parental leave. However, taking into account the employee's record of receiving a commendation from the chair of the National Research Council of Science & Technology (NST), it reduced the penalty to a reprimand. NSR said it deducted personal annual leave in an amount equivalent to the time spent connected to the game server, and deducted the equivalent from the salaries of employees who did not have enough leave.
NSR said, "We have consolidated all training lines under a centralized management system, monitor all usage records, and block access to non-work-related sites such as games. We have provided security training to all employees and related training at the center twice, and required one regular inspection and report on the operation of the external training network."
Rep. Hwang criticized the conduct, saying, "It is a serious lapse in discipline for employees tasked with protecting national cybersecurity to repeatedly log into game servers while taking advantage of administrators' absence." She added, "Even though NSR determined that a pay cut was warranted, reducing the penalty to a reprimand because of a past commendation is a slap on the wrist that falls short of public expectations."
Hwang also stressed, "In addition to thorough oversight of staff conduct and strict accountability, the protection system should be reviewed to ensure that internal whistleblowers do not suffer disadvantages."
[email protected] Kim Su-yeon Reporter