LG Uplus apologizes for personal information leak, service failure

Hwang Hyeon-sik, CEO of LG Uplus, bows to apologize for customer information leak and internet service failures caused by DDoS attack at the company's headquarters in Yongsan District, Seoul, Thursday. Yonhap

By Baek Byung-yeul

Hwang Hyeon-sik, CEO of LG Uplus apologized for a leak of customers' information and internet service failures caused by a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack on Thursday and vowed to increase its cybersecurity by spending 100 billion won ($77.9 million) a year.

“I apologize to customers who feel anxious due to the information leakage, small business owners who have experienced confusion due to internet service errors and the people who have sent deep love and trust to us,” Hwang said during a press conference at the company's headquarters in Seoul.

“We take the incident as a serious matter. This is the result of us not having focused on the fact that bolstering security is the basic principle of the telecommunications business. We will reflect on the fact that the starting point of all our businesses is our customers, and review the basics from a customer perspective,” the CEO added.

Hwang's apology follows a series of cybersecurity failures made by the mobile carrier due to its poor management.

In January, the company was attacked by hackers and the personal information of at least 290,000 subscribers was stolen. Following the information security breach, the company underwent a total of five DDoS attacks on Jan. 29 and Feb. 4, causing internet service failures.

DDoS is a type of cyber-attack that increases internet traffic beyond the extent that the attacked company's servers can handle.

As a countermeasure, LG Uplus said it will increase its budget for cybersecurity to 100 billion won a year, three times the current level of spending. The company will also strengthen the roles of chief information security office (CISO), chief privacy officer (CPO) and recruit security experts.

To further improve security stability, the company will try to listen to opinions from external security experts and operate an information protection committee comprised of experts from security consulting companies and academics.

The company also plans to replace USIM cards for all customers for free to relieve anxiety caused by the personal information leak and is preparing to provide a spam phone call notification service for free.