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back to article Nearly HALF of South Korea hacked in insider data theft

The personal details of as many as 20 million South Koreans may have been exposed after an employee at a credit ratings firm was arrested on suspicion of selling the records to marketing firms. The temporary consultant, who worked at the Korea Credit Bureau (KCB), is suspected of lifting the data from the servers of KB Kookmin …

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  1. xperroni
    Devil

    "selling [the stolen data] to phone marketing companies"

    I'm curious: had the data not been stolen, would it be legal to sell it? Are Korean marketing companies allowed to buy personal records that include sensitive stuff such as credit card data? It seems awful to my naive senses that such a ready market for selling personal data would even be allowed to exist.

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    1. Anonymous Coward
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      Anonymous Coward

      Re: "selling [the stolen data] to phone marketing companies"

      It seems awful to my naive senses that such a ready market for selling personal data would even be allowed to exist.

      There is a MASSIVE market for data about people that can be abused for offering ratings, and where there is opportunity for profit, someone will either find a way of bending the rules or simply ignore them until they get found out. Credit reference agencies are a good example of entities that are very keen on information.

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    2. Pascal Monett Silver badge
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      Re: "Are [..] marketing companies allowed to buy personal records that include sensitive stuff "

      Do you really think they care if they are "allowed" or not ?

      Note that the guy heading for prison is not the one who <alledgedly> bought the data, it's the one who sold the data.

      Which, of course, is the reverse for drugs, where it's the people buying the stuff that get locked up.

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      1. xperroni
        Reply Icon

        Re: "Are [..] marketing companies allowed to buy personal records that include sensitive stuff "

        Do you really think they care if they are "allowed" or not ?

        "Allowed" as in, "not watched intently for this kind of thing and whacked the moment they so much as think of doing it". Of course if there is a law against it, but it's not enforced, then it's as bad as saying it's OK – actually even worse, as it gives off the false impression that the problem is being addressed when in fact it's not.

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  2. adnim
    Meh

    Nothing to worry about

    It will never happen here

    All your cards and cloud data is perfectly safe

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    1. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Coat

      Re: Nothing to worry about

      "All your cards and cloud data is perfectly safe"

      Especially the UK.gov cloud - like your your tax records. And child benefits information. But we've also put that all on a CD to be extra safe and we know exactly where it is... down the back of Paul Gray's sofa.

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  3. Mag07

    2 days after arriving in the UK, leaving my data only at one place - the Barclays Bank, I started being bombarded by offers from phone companies addressed to me personally. Didn't even have a phone back then and our house lease is not on my name.

    Just wished they used recycled paper in their marketing mail - the glossy stuff is not as good a firelighter for my chiminea.

    Few months later, business as usual in my company, new client, a large property developer, sends me an angry letter asking why we don't even bother purchasing large databases of customers to promote their property better - but offers to share the costs...

    It's a common practice across the board, not even sure why it makes the news anymore - what is the point if no-one up top is willing to put a stop to it?

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  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    title wrong

    so it wasn't hacked just stolen by a temporary employee

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  5. Dodgy Geezer Silver badge

    There were 20 million records stolen.

    There are 50 million people living there.

    I would guess that means that practically each household has at least one hit. I don't know how many kids there are there, but 20 million must be practically ALL economically active adults.

    Opportunity there for a tender for complete card replacements for a whole country...

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