Bae Ji-sook reports:
Police on Sunday arrested two hackers for stealing and selling on the personal information of 8.7 million KT users.
Investigators said they would also investigate KT on suspicion of negligent management of firewalls and personal data as the number of victims accounts for nearly half of its subscribers.
According to the National Police Agency, a telemarketing business operator and his coworker in February created a computer program that could penetrate KT’s firewalls. From then through July 15, the hackers harvested information related to mobile phone users and took advantage of the list in telemarketing activities, encouraging subscribers to switch to another mobile phone or pricing program.
The stolen information included the name, mobile phone number, membership number, personal identification number and mobile phone serial number of each subscriber.
The suspects also reportedly sold the information and the program to other telemarketers.
Read more on The Korea Herald.