This photo taken Sept. 10, 2025, shows a retail store of South Korea’s No. 2 mobile carrier KT Corp. in Seoul. (Image courtesy of Yonhap)
SEOUL, Sept. 11 (Korea Bizwire) — Science Minister Bae Kyung-hoon visited an office of South Korea’s No. 2 mobile carrier KT Corp. on Thursday, calling for an all-out effort to address a recent series of unauthorized mobile payments.
The visit came after a total of 278 cases of unauthorized mobile payments worth 170 million won (US$122,000) had been reported by KT users as of Wednesday, raising concerns over a possible leak of customer data.
“The latest breach is a significant issue that directly affects people’s trust in the telecommunications system in their daily lives,” Bae said.
“We ask for all-out efforts to regain the public’s trust and to recognize that strong security is an essential element in making the country one of the world’s top three players in the artificial intelligence (AI) sector,” he added.
Bae also urged the company to proactively cooperate with the related investigation.
On the same day, KT said the personal data of more than 5,500 users may have been compromised in the recent mobile payment breach, issuing a public apology for the failure.
“Hackers may possess additional personal data beyond the international mobile subscriber identity (IMSI) information of the affected KT users,” the minister said.
He said the government will establish fundamental countermeasures rather than respond in a superficial manner, adding that the findings will be announced once the investigation is complete.
KT explained that the IMSI data may have been exposed through illegal, unregistered micro base stations connected to its communication network. IMSI data, a unique identifier for each subscriber stored in a universal subscriber identity module (USIM) chip, can be misused if leaked.
Since Aug. 27, some KT users, mostly in southwestern Seoul, have reported unauthorized mobile transactions.
On Tuesday, the science ministry launched a special team to probe the recent breach, a day after KT officially reported the case to the Korea Internet & Security Agency.
(Yonhap)
