By Kim Tae-gyu
Staff Reporter
A number of Korean Web users have stolen identification information from other netizens to sign up for Internet portal sites, according to the Ministry of Information and Communication (MIC), Tuesday.
``After the Internet real-name system was introduced by Naver and Daum in June, more than nine million Naver subscribers checked their usernames,'' MIC Director Kang Shin-ook said.
``They erased 104,000 usernames possibly due to identity theft or other reasons. We are striving to learn how many are related to identity theft,'' Kang said.
Naver is the country's foremost Internet portal site with a 27 million user base, followed by the No. 2 player Daum, which boasts of 26 million subscribers.
The ministry partially phased in the Web real-name system in late June, applying it only to Naver and Daum. The policy was expanded to other sites last month and currently involves 21 Internet portals and 14 online media sites.
Under the regulations, users of the 35 frequently visited sites have been forced to provide their identification data including names and resident registration numbers to make online postings.
In addition, portal sites demonstrated how many usernames were created for a specific identification data. For example, Naver allows three usernames per individual.
However, Daum did not ask for identification data before the launch of the real-name formula, and so was unable to compile the number of identity thefts.
``We are not sure about how much identification data was stolen since Web surfers don't have to report it to us,'' Naver spokesman Lee Kyung-ryul said.
``Yet, approximately 1,500 people called or wrote to us about their private information and most of the inquiries were related to identity theft,'' Lee said.
Meanwhile, the MIC found eight Web sites, which were not following the requirements of the real-name system.
``We ordered them to comply with the real name system, but two sites Yahoo! Korea and PandoraTV failed to follow our guidance for some reason,'' MIC Director Kang said.
``Should they continue to ignore the real-name system, they will face a maximum fine of 30 million won,'' he said.
Yahoo! Korea is the country's mid-tier Web portal and PandoraTV is the biggest site for sharing amateur-made video clips.