Probe Starts on Hanmail Data Leaks
By Kim Yoo-chul
Staff Reporter
The Korea Communications Commission started Thursday investigations into the major data leakage at Hanmail, the e-mail service of the nation's second-largest Internet portal Daum, what occured earlier this week.
``It will take a week to wrap up the basic probe,'' a commission spokesman said, adding that the possibility of hacking is not excluded.
Under the pertinent regulations, an online service operator may face a maximum fine of 10 million won for an act of negligence. But if the n accident proves to be a willful mistake, it may be slapped with operational suspension.
Daum said Thursday that the cause of data leakage was a ``simple mistake.''
In a rare press conference, its CEO Seok Jong-hoon said his company will take full responsibility but denied that any act of hacking was involved.
``I am truly sorry for causing such problems to our mail users,'' he told reporters.
``We believe the problem occurred in the process of upgrading Hanmail functions to allow e-mail users to see their last logon data. But the problem doesn't involve any hacking,'' he claimed.
Daum is internally investigating additional cases on its Hanmail users who suffered a leakage of e-mail details. Currently, some 370 cases have been filed.
Separately, the nation's communications regulator body said it has begun investigating the incident and will take measures if any guilt is attributable to Daum.
Such a follow up measure comes a few days after the Korea Communications Commission said Tuesday that it plans to compel Web sites with daily traffic of more than 100,000 visitors to implement the system as part of a comprehensive scheme aimed at strengthening protection of private information.
A considerable amount of personal e-mail information had been leaked from the Hanmail e-mail service on July 22. Some 22 million people reportedly use Hanmail at least once a month.
Hanmail users say that another person's account appeared when they logged onto their e-mail account between 3 p.m. and 4 p.m. Tuesday.
Daum suspended Hanmail service at 4 p.m., 40 minutes after the incident occurred ― with a notice that there were access problems because of network instability. Service was restored around an hour later, but some users say all of their messages were deleted.
The server for Daum's customer service center also crashed down because of a flood of inquiries about the malfunction.
``System upgrade is normally carried out at dawn when user traffic is low. But a series of sample tests produced no problem and the company continued to work on the upgrade during the day,'' Seok said.
Civic groups said they are considering taking legal action, if necessary.