IT contractor arrested for deepfake videos made from stolen school staff photos
An IT contractor was arrested for creating deepfake videos depicting school staff members in sexual scenarios using 221,921 personal photos and videos stolen from employee computers while conducting maintenance work at 19 Busan schools. Police charged him with multiple violations including data theft and creating illegal synthetic media.
What happened
A male IT contractor in his 30s, identified as A, employed by a company managing school IT equipment in Busan, accessed teachers' personal computers on the pretext of conducting system checks. Between July 2021 and September 2025, he accessed Google Photos and Naver MyBox accounts on computers left logged in by staff, storing 221,921 personal photos and video files from 194 school employees across 19 schools onto his USB drive.
A created 20 deepfake videos depicting school staff members in sexual scenarios using the stolen images. He also conducted illegal filming 45 times, targeting teachers' clothing, and downloaded and stored 533 videos total including child sexual abuse material and illegal recordings from pornographic websites. Police seized 405 gigabytes of problematic material from his devices.
Reported impact
All identified victims were female school employees across 19 Busan-area schools. The deepfake videos were not distributed online according to police.
Index analysis
Police recommended the Busan Metropolitan Office of Education strengthen information security by installing CCTV in office spaces, requiring login passwords for computers and screen savers, and implementing stronger access controls for outsourced IT maintenance personnel.
Governance controls
A police spokesperson stated that schools commonly outsource computer equipment maintenance to external contractors, creating security gaps where personal information can be compromised, emphasizing the need for heightened caution in vendor access management.
Classification
Sources and evidence
This record was researched and written by the Index, based on the following original reporting.