North Korean hacking groups are confirmed to have stolen a large number of email addresses by impersonating government agencies or reporters this year.

According to the National Police Agency on Tuesday, a total of one-thousand-468 cases of email account theft have been linked to North Korean hacking groups this year through an investigation into the group “Kimsuky,” which was found to have stolen the accounts of domestic experts.

Among the victims of stolen email accounts, 57 were former and current government officials in diplomacy, unification, national defense and security, while the remainder were civilians, such as office workers and self-employed people.

The hacking groups would send emails disguised as instructions or questionnaires by impersonating government agencies or research institutes through which they could install malicious programs to steal account information once the recipients open attached files.