It appears that a massive data breach affecting 35 million South Koreans who use popular portal and social networking sites Nate and Cyworld has served as a wake-up call for the government:
The South Korea government will push ahead with plans to scrap the current real-name system for Internet users in the wake of the country’s worst online security breach, local media reported Thursday.
The Ministry of Public Administration and Security is set to report to ruling party lawmakers about comprehensive measures to protect personal information online, including abolishing the real- name registration system, Yonhap news agency said.
Read more on TMCnet.com.
The hack of SK Communications reportedly originated from an IP in China. According to a report in The Korea Herald:
According to the official, the hacker used a Korean internet security provider, EST Soft, to break into computers at SK Communications and stole user data of the nation’s third-ranked portal Nate and popular social networking site Cyworld.
EST Soft is a provider of various software programs, including AlZip, a widely popular freeware for file compression and extraction.
The hacker implanted a malicious code in EST Soft’s update server for ALZip and paralyzed 62 PCs at SK Communications to use them to access the company’s user data base.
It seems that the malicious code only targeted SK Communications, not individual users of AlZip, the official said.