Hack Attack In South Korea Gets Access To Data On Over 70% Of Everyone In The Country

from the hacked dept

Fri, Jul 29th 2011 3:42pm — Mike Masnick

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.

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Filed Under: data, hack, personal information, south korea

12 Comments

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blaktron (profile), 29 Jul 2011 @ 3:47pm

We sure do need more data retention, don't want to make it TOO hard for the scammers....
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Anonymous Coward, 29 Jul 2011 @ 4:18pm

South Korea uses SSN's too?
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Anonymous Coward, 29 Jul 2011 @ 4:25pm

Re:
Those were 35 million of US citizens visiting :)
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Anonymous Coward, 29 Jul 2011 @ 4:28pm

> Hackers purportedly attacked popular Internet and social media sites Nate and Cyworld earlier this week, stealing data such as social security numbers and email addresses

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).
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Hothmonster, 29 Jul 2011 @ 4:39pm

I cant wait till our isps are holding all that info in a nice little package too
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Liz, 29 Jul 2011 @ 4:58pm

Re:
South Korea uses SSN's too?

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.
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Anonymous Coward, 29 Jul 2011 @ 6:04pm

Re:
And THAT is the worst part of the shameful bill rammed through today. It's inevitable that information like this will be acquired by third parties. So put aside for a moment the worries about what government will do with it: imagine what blackmailers, pedophiles, identity thieves will do with it.

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.
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Anonymous Coward, 29 Jul 2011 @ 7:38pm

Re:
Korea's version of the SSN, the Resident Registration Number, is required to apply for many services available on the internet to Koreans. It would actually be very uncommon by Korean standards for a social network not to require a RRN for registration.
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The eejit (profile), 29 Jul 2011 @ 11:49pm

Re: Re:
I wouldn't say the death penalty, but a fine appropriate to your size. So if, say, Sony had a breach nd didn't tell you about it, they'd lose $40m. But if a small business lost it, they would only be fined a few g's.
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Anonymous Coward, 30 Jul 2011 @ 3:04am

Re: Re: Re:
$40M to Sony? Insignificant. Besides, they'd fight it in court, spending $100M if necessary to avoid paying it.

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.
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Anonymous Coward, 30 Jul 2011 @ 7:28pm

Re:
VPN
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Billy, 24 Aug 2011 @ 7:40am

Re: SSN's
Yes - http://www.ssa.gov/international/links.html
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