This photo shows the sign of a KT retail store in Seoul. (Image courtesy of Yonhap)
SEOUL, Sept. 18 (Korea Bizwire) — KT Corp. said Thursday the number of victims of a recent mobile payment breach has reached 362, with total damage estimated at 240 million won (US$173,000).
South Korea’s No. 2 mobile carrier, which recently reported a series of unauthorized mobile payments following a suspected data leak, had initially reported 278 victims.
“Of the 362 victims, we have completed correcting bills for 278. We will finalize refunds for the remaining 84 customers as well,” Kim Young-geol, chief of KT’s service product division, said in a press conference in Seoul.
The company said it reached the conclusion after reviewing all mobile payments made through the automated response system since June.
“There has been no additional damage reported after we blocked suspicious attempts to make mobile payments on Sept. 5,” added Koo Jae-hyung, who heads KT Corp.’s network technology division.
The mobile carrier added it has found no evidence that users’ names and birth dates, both essential for mobile payments, were leaked from the company.
KT noted other key personal information, including the universal subscriber identity module (USIM) certification number, has not been compromised, ruling out additional damage caused by smartphone cloning.
A total of 20,000 customers, however, received signals from four unauthorized cellular base stations, or femtocells, raising concerns over possible leakage of their International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI) and International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) numbers, as well as phone numbers.
On the previous day, police detained two Chinese nationals, aged 48 and 44, on suspicions of being involved in the unauthorized mobile payments of KT users.
The 48-year-old is accused of making small unauthorized mobile payments as KT users by hacking their phones while carrying an illegal micro base station connected to KT’s communication network.
The other suspect has been charged for having cashed the unauthorized payments.
(Yonhap)
