Hack Attack In South Korea Gets Access To Data On Over 70% Of Everyone In The Country
from the hacked dept
We've talked about some massive data breaches in the past, but a recent hack attack in South Korea apparently resulted in personal information on 35 million people being copied. The country has a population somewhere around 49 million... meaning that over 70% of South Koreans had their personal info copied by someone. Authorities are blaming China, though it's not clear if that's really the case. Either way, whoever did the hack got "user IDs, passwords, social security numbers, names, mobile phone numbers and email addresses." At least the SSNs and passwords were encrypted, so it's not quite as bad as it could have been. But it basically sounds like if you have internet access in South Korea, someone probably got your data.Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Filed Under: data, hack, personal information, south korea
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
A lot of services online can't be used unless you have a SSN in South Korea. From banking to video games. It's one way for them to ensure that their systems accept only regional access or restrict access to their citizens.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: SSN's
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Why the hell would social media site have your SSN?
> alleged the attack originated from computers in China based on their Internet Protocol addresses
Um... How does that indicate the attacker, again? China is the #1 favorite location for bounce boxes (i.e. hacked computers you SSH to and use *them* to do the hacking, so to cover your traces).
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
And they WILL get it. It has value, therefore someone will be willing to hack it for the right price.
We need data protection laws that stipulate the death penalty for those who fail. That's the only thing that will convince people to put adequate security in place.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re:
No, I would prefer to see the CEO publicly beheaded as punishment for the breaches. I think that would "inspire" them to work just a little harder to keep data private.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]