Kim Yoo-chul reports:
The situation can’t get any worse for SK Communications, the operator of Cyworld and Nate, following a hacking attack that compromised the personal information of 35 million of its customers.
Stock prices of the Internet unit of the telecommunications giant SK Telecom plummeted. Officials admitted that the recent data loss may taint the company’s image.
Efforts to calm angry customers will be challenging.
Lawyers are already circling the users of Cyworld, the country’s largest social media service, and Nate, popular for search and instant messaging services, to lure them into filing class-action lawsuits.
As the company scrambles to recover from what may be its greatest crisis to date, many wonder whether its network remains vulnerable.
Read more on The Korea Times. It sounds like plaintiffs there would have the same challenge as in American courts – demonstrating actual harm. It will also be interesting to see if the impact of the breach on stock prices and the like is consistent with what we have seen with big breaches in other countries like the Sony breach in Japan and the TJX breach here. If so, there will not be any significant financial harm.