Credit information at Hyundai Capital leaked to hacker

Hyundai Capital, a financial unit of Hyundai Motor Group, said Sunday that confidential credit information on its customers was leaked during a recent hacker attack on its customer database that has sparked an ongoing investigation.

Credit ratings and passwords for an unspecified number of its individual customers were leaked, the company said, citing the results of its internal investigation. Passwords to its loan service for about 13,000 customers might also have been compromised, according to market watchers.

The revelation comes after the company told the public on Friday that an unidentified hacker attacked its database, leaking personal information for 420,000 of its 1.8 million customers, including their names, resident registration numbers, mobile phone numbers and email addresses. At the time, the company stressed that key data required for financial transactions was not leaked.

Hyundai Capital, which specializes in personal loans, home mortgages, and auto financing, did not know about the data leak until the hacker sent an email on Thursday, threatening to release the information unless he received cash.

The Financial Supervisory Service, South Korea's national financial watchdog, earlier said its investigation will start in earnest on Monday.

Hyundai Capital said that it plans to notify affected customers of the fact that their private data and credit information was leaked, while asking them to change their passwords. It also will beef up security measures against additional hacking attempts, its official said. (Yonhap)