Another follow-up on a massive data breach that resulted in the South Korean government discarding its plan to enforce real-name registration. Yonhap News reports:
A South Korean court ordered on Sunday the operator of the country’s third most-visited Internet portal to pay out compensation to a user whose information was leaked during last month’s massive hacking attack.
Two popular Web sites operated by SK Communications Co. were hacked in late July, causing the private information of 35 million users to be leaked. The cyber attack was the worst online breach ever in the world’s most wired country.
On Aug. 1, Chung, a 25-year-old man identified only by his last name, asked the Seoul Central District Court to deliver a summary judgement to order SK Communications to pay 1 million won (US$925) in compensation for the security breach. The court said it ordered the operator of the Nate search engine and Cyworld social networking Web site to pay the compensation.
SK Communications said it cannot accept the court’s decision, saying that it will take legal action.
[…]
I find it stunning that someone can go to court on August 1 and a court can order compensation within weeks. Any such suit here would be tied up for years, although I doubt we’ve heard the last of this particular lawsuit.