South Korean Credit Rating Bureau Experiences Data Breach Of 20 Million Personal Details

It almost seems like there’s nobody that you can trust these days. From governments spying on its own citizens, to retailers getting hacked, it seems like the world is just not safe anymore. Looking to add fuel to the fire is a report where personal details of over 20 million South Koreans might have been exposed after an employee at a credit ratings firm was arrested on suspicion that they might have taken confidential information and sold it to marketing firms. Given that marketing firms base their strategies on the behaviors of consumers which involves knowing who their consumers are in terms of age, income, gender, and so on, no doubt the stolen information would be a huge boon in their marketing efforts.

Based on the reports, the perpetrator was a temporary consultant who worked for the Korea Credit Bureau and is suspected to have stolen information from a variety of credit cards, such as KG Kookmin Card, Lotte Card, and NH Nonghyup Card. The stolen information was then allegedly sold to phone marketing companies. According to the Korean Financial Supervisory Service, they promised that the credit card firms will be covering any financial losses that might have been a result of the crime. To put this into perspective, the population of South Korea is at 50 million, meaning that almost half of the country had its information stolen and sold, which we have to say is a pretty damn big deal.

Tyler Lee
Categories: General
Tags: Hacking