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Two Arrested For Hacking Personal Data of 8.7 Million Phone Users

Posted by samzenpus on from the all-your-info-are-belong-to-us dept.

An anonymous reader writes "South Korea's second largest wireless service provider has apologized after personal data of 8.7 millions of its mobile phone subscribers was stolen by hackers. The details are suspected to have been sold to marketing firms, netting the hackers close to $1 million. From the article: 'South Korean police have arrested two men who allegedly stole the personal information of about 8.7 million cellphone customers from KT Corp., the second biggest mobile carrier in South Korea. The company alerted police on July 13 after detecting traces of hacking attacks. The data was collected for the last five months, starting in February 2012.'"

2 of 43 comments (clear)

  1. And what happens to the marketing firms? by popo · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I don't know anything about Korean law, but aren't they liable as well if they purchase goods that are stolen, or have a reasonable likelihood of being stolen?

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  2. In America by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    They have entire companies who do exactly this, thousands of some of the brightest minds dedicated to extracting as much data about you as possible through any measure.
    they give them names like
    Google
    Facebook
    Apple
    Adobe Omniture
    Comscore
    Neilson

    even re-defining a word for this covert spying called "analytics"

    See if 1 or 2 people get your info, we call them hackers, if a gang of people under a collective name with TM symbol , then this its called a "business" in America and its actions are to be applauded.