South Korea: SK Telecom denies data leak, suspected organized fraud

SK Telecom announced that all customer data being sold on the dark web by a group of hackers is fake information, adding that this could be an organized scam.

According to Yonhap News Agency, on September 16, South Korean telecommunications giant SK Telecom announced that all customer data being sold on a dark web site by a group of hackers was fake information, and suggested that this could be an organized scam.

Speaking to the press, a representative of SK Telecom confirmed that after analyzing data samples, website screenshots, and file transfer interface (FTP) images posted on the dark web site, the company concluded that all the information was fake and that the website in question does not exist within SK Telecom's internal system.

According to the statement, the 100GB of data that the hacking group claims to possess "has never been leaked."

This information emerged after the international hacking group Scattered Lapsus$ posted on its Telegram channel, claiming it would sell SK Telecom's customer data for $10,000, adding that 42 South Koreans had contacted them.

The group also claimed the data included customers' identifiers, names, phone numbers, emails, addresses, and dates of birth. They threatened SK Telecom to negotiate, otherwise all the data of 27 million users would be released.

Meanwhile, South Korean authorities said they are urgently verifying the authenticity of the information released by the hacker group.

Earlier in April, SK Telecom announced a serious cyberattack that may have leaked the personal data of all its users. Following this incident, the company upgraded its Foreign Data Protection (FDS) function and improved its SIM protection service to prevent secondary damage from the data leak.

Last July, SK Telecom announced plans to invest 700 billion won (approximately $503 million) over five years to build one of the world's most advanced information security systems.

In August, the company officially launched its Center for Integrated Security (CISO) organization and placed it under the direct supervision of the Board of Directors.

(VNA/Vietnam+)

Source: https://www.vietnamplus.vn/han-quoc-sk-telecom-phu-nhan-vu-ro-ri-du-lieu-nghi-ngo-lua-dao-co-to-chuc-post1062082.vnp