Lee Gyu-lee is a business writer at The Korea Times, focusing primarily on IT & telecommunications, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy and KOTRA. Prior to this, she has covered a wide range of cultural news, from film, television and K-pop to lifestyle and fashion.
Leading telecoms struggle with aftermath of data breach
A person passes by a moblie carrier store in Seoul, Thursday. Yonhap
By Lee Gyu-lee
In the wake of recent data breaches and cyberthreats, Korea’s major mobile carriers SK Telecom and KT are under heightened scrutiny from authorities and facing growing concerns from consumers, as both scramble to reassure users and contain potential fallout.
SK Telecom, the nation’s largest telecom operator, is still reeling from a massive hacking incident in April that affected 27 million users with a personal information breach and dragged its market share below 40 percent for the first time in a decade.
The Ministry of Science and ICT said Tuesday it has launched an investigation into a group identifying itself as an international hacking organization that is claiming it owns stolen SK Telecom customer data and seeks to sell it.
The group, calling itself Scattered Lapsus$, posted on Telegram Monday claiming it possesses the data of 27 million SK Telecom users and is selling a 100 gigabyte sample of the dataset for $10,000. It said the data includes personal information such as user IDs, full names, phone numbers, emails, addresses and birthdates.
The group shared images of sample data and file transfer protocol (FTP) screenshots, demanding that SK Telecom respond. It threatened to release data, along with admin access, if the company doesn’t respond for negotiations.
SK Telecom quickly denied the hackers’ claim Tuesday, saying the 100 gigabytes of data they claim to have has never been leaked.
“After analyzing the sample data, website screenshots and FTP images that the hacker uploaded to the dark web (on Telegram), we confirmed that all of the content was fabricated, including a website that does not even exist within the company,” the company’s official said.
Emphasizing that the company was not contacted directly by the group, it said it is working with the authorities to respond to the matter.
The ministry said it has demanded SK Telecom submit related data and “will swiftly verify the facts and disclose the results transparently to the public.”
Meanwhile, KT also continues its struggle with cases of fraudulent mobile payment that surfaced last week.
The incident, which reportedly led to unapproved transactions on user accounts, prompted a high-profile apology from the company.
The mobile payment breach made headlines with an unprecedented security threat that used rogue cellular base stations to intercept verifications directed to the users when making payments. The case quickly magnified with reports of new cases continuing to roll in, along with the size of the damage.
The ICT Ministry and KT have confirmed 278 cases among its users, with the total losses expected to surpass 170 million won ($122,460). The company also confirmed that the international mobile subscriber identity of 5,561 users may have been compromised.
Although the company claims there is no evidence that the leaked data had been used for illegal device alterations, KT users’ concerns are growing because neither KT nor the telecom authority are explaining how the hacking actually took place, especially with regards to the bypassing of the phone verification process.
“I switched from SK Telecom to KT after the hacking incident, and now KT is under an unexplainable threat,” a Seoul-based KT user said. “I check every day to see if any unauthorized payments have been made, but considering that LG Uplus, the third-largest carrier, has also been exposed to hacking in the past, there is little I can do other than feel increasingly anxious.”
An industry official said there is no noteworthy user movement yet after KT fell prey to hacking, but turmoil could arise in the user bases of both carriers in the near future, depending on the results of ongoing investigations.
“This will likely coincide with Apple’s iPhone 17 launch in Korea, which often triggers user movements and makes it difficult to interpret subscriber data,” the official said. “Eventually, investigation results will show the actual impact.”