SEOUL, June 19 (Korea Bizwire) — SK Telecom Co., South Korea’s leading mobile carrier, said Thursday it has nearly completed replacing universal subscriber identity module (USIM) chips for its entire user base of 25 million, about two months after it said sensitive USIM data may have been leaked due to an unidentified cyberattack on its servers.
“USIM replacement will be completed today in general,” an SK Telecom official said.
The official, however, remained cautious about fully resuming new subscription services, which have been suspended for about a month under government orders.
SK Telecom began offering free USIM card replacements in late April to all of its subscribers, including 2 million budget phone users, to prevent potential identity theft or financial fraud following the data breach.
The South Korean government ordered the company to suspend new subscriptions until the USIM replacements were finalized.
As the replacement process nears completion, SK Telecom resumed new subscription services, limited to embedded SIMs (eSIMs), Monday.
According to interim findings released last month by a government-led investigation team, the breach dates back to June 2022, when unidentified attackers are believed to have planted malware on the company’s data servers that store sensitive personal information.
The team is expected to release its final investigation report later this month.
(Yonhap)