Vast online data leak in South Korea

South Korean retailer Shinsegae and 24 other companies have been breached and private data on 20 million customers has been stolen, forcing the Ministry of Public Administration and Security to announce that the police and other government agencies will be looking into the security measures the companies were using to protect the data.

The breaches were discovered a few days ago, after the police arrested three South Korean nationals that were trying to sell the information (IDs, addresses, passwords, etc.) online. Supposedly, they didn’t steal the data themselves but acquired it from some Chinese hackers, who are yet to be apprehended.

Shinsegae apologized to its customers and said that as far as they are aware, no damages have been inflicted to any of the customers.

Another action taken against online crime in South Korea involves the indictment of 39 people accused of uploading massive amounts of films and other copyrighted material on local P2P sites. Apparently, it isn’t unusual to have South Korean ISPs hire people to this kind of thing – a month ago four ISP executives were convicted of that crime, receiving a year long prison sentence and being ordered to pay a substantial fine.