No class action against Hyundai Capital likely

By Kang Seung-woo

Customers of Hyundai Capital are enraged over the company’s ineptitude in protecting their data from cyber criminals, but bringing a class-action suit against the company looks to be a challenge.

Hyundai Capital, an affiliate of automotives giant Hyundai Motor and the largest lender in the country’s secondary financial sector, reported last week that the personal information of more than 420,000 of its customers has been breached by hackers.

If any other company were involved, a security blunder of such a size would have lawyers scrambling to lure victims to sign up for collective legal action that could fetch them a massive payday. Things are a little more complicated with Hyundai Capital as many of those who borrowed from the company were in precarious financial situations to begin with.

Many customers appear to feel that a class-action suit against the company would result in a backlash they couldn’t afford. Should Hyundai Capital stop lending them money, their next option is to turn to the country’s notorious loan sharks and their crippling interest rates.

Major data breaches in the past, such as those involving online shopping site Auction (www.auction.co.kr), refiner GS Caltex and e-mail provider Daum (www.daum.net), had led to the creation of a slew of websites run by lawyers and law firms gunning for class-action suits. There is only one website for the Hyundai Capital fiasco with only two members who are obviously wondering whether a class action could be brought by a duo.

Those who had their information breached accounted for more than 23 percent of Hyundai Capital’s customers, and 13,000 might have had serious information such as their personal identification numbers (PINs) for loans stolen as well.

Right after discovering the information leak, Hyundai Capital informed its customers that they needed to change their passwords to avoid any possible damage.

``We are recognizing that there might be a lawsuit,’’ a Hyundai Capital official casually observed.

``I was angry after receiving an e-mailed apology from Hyundai Capital that said my data had been stolen,’’ wrote an Internet blogger.

``I used Hyundai Capital to finance my car purchase. I assumed that a large company like Hyundai Capital would have a better security system to defend against hacking, but apparently, this was not the case.’’

But anger seemed his only option.