SK Group focuses on rebuilding trust after data breach

SK Group executives watch a video clip of SK Group's former chairman Chey Jong-hyon during the group's 2025 management strategy meeting at SK Management System Institute in Icheon, Gyeonggi Province, in this handout photo released Sunday. Courtesy of SK Group

Top executives of SK Group held a meeting on the conglomerates’ management strategy and emphasized the importance of rebuilding the trust of customers and other stakeholders, in a response to a recent massive user data breach at its telecom unit, SK Telecom.

According to the group, on Sunday Chairman Chey Tae-won, Senior Vice Chairman Chey Jae-won and more than 20 CEOs of key units attended the meeting on Friday and Saturday at SK Management System Institute in Icheon, Gyeonggi Province. The meeting explored the group’s strategies for the second half of this year, coordinating the business goals of each unit.

During the meeting, SK Group executives discussed the crisis stemming from both external and internal challenges, including growing global uncertainties and the recent data breach at SK Telecom.

They agreed that the group must return to “the very basics of management through thorough self-scrutiny” and focus on delivering greater value to customers and society as part of efforts to restore public trust.

SK Telecom is currently banned from enrolling new customers, following the customers’ universal subscriber identity module (USIM) data breach in April, which affected as many as 27 million users.

Though no major cybercrime exploiting the leaked data has been reported so far, the incident has damaged customers’ and partner companies’ trust in SK Telecom’s cybersecurity, casting doubts on the reliability of SK Group’s data-related businesses.

SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won speaks during a meeting with President Lee Jae-myung at the presidential office in Yongsan District, Seoul, Friday. Joint Press Corps

The participants agreed that regaining public trust starts from thorough self-scrutiny, noting that “commitment to the basics of management is the most reliable way to secure fundamental competitiveness and generate lasting values.”

“Customers’ trust is the reason why SK Group exists,” the group said in a statement. “We must return to the most fundamental questions and reexamine the core values that our businesses should prioritize.”

They also reviewed the ongoing reorganization of the group’s portfolio.

Since last year, the group has been reorganizing and rebalancing the ownership, businesses and assets of its subsidiaries to proactively respond to the rapidly changing business environment.

As part of this effort, it merged SK Innovation and SK E&S to form Asia’s largest private energy company, restructured semiconductor-related subsidiaries into a parent-subsidiary ownership structure and redistributed artificial intelligence (AI)-related business assets to relevant affiliates.

The group said the reorganization efforts are aimed at streamlining overlapping businesses, internalizing quality assets and maximizing synergies among future growth sectors, thereby securing the long-term viability and growth potential of its businesses.

Through streamlining, the group plans to make investments into future growth sectors including AI, semiconductor and energy solutions.

“SK leadership has decided to make a more practical approach across the group so that the market and stakeholders can tangibly feel the group’s transformation,” an official at the group said. “We expect these efforts will help SK restore trust and build a better future with its stakeholders.”