South Korean police have arrested two hackers who stole personal data of 8.7 million customers of the nation's second-biggest mobile operator, the company said on July 29.
KT said the hackers - formally arrested on Sunday - had stolen data such as customers' names, phone numbers and residential registration numbers for five months since February and sold the information to telemarketing firms. "The number of affected people account for nearly a half of about 17 million customers of ours," a KT spokesman told AFP, adding the company had alerted police on July 13 after detecting traces of hacking attacks.
Yonhap news agency, citing police, said the duo - including a former veteran programmer at a local IT company - had earned at least 1 billion won (about $880,000) by selling the stolen data.
Seven other people were also booked for buying the leaked data for telemarketing purposes, Yonhap said.
Hacking attacks on major companies aimed to gain access to the personal data of their customers is a frequent occurrence in South Korea, one of the world's most-wired nations.
Seoul authorities said in July last year hackers using an Internet address registered in China had gained access to South Korean major websites including web portal Nate.com and may have stolen the private data of 35 million users.
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