South Korea law enforcement officers today have apprehended two men charged of stealing personal data from 8.7 million local subscribers in one of the Asian country’s largest hacking incidents.

KT, the second-biggest telecoms company in South Korea, said the hackers had stolen data, which include the names, phone numbers and residential registration numbers of its subscribers, for five months running since February and dealt the information to telemarketing companies.

“The number of affected people account for nearly a half of about 17 million customers of ours,” a KT representative told the AFP.

The company immediately informed local police on July 13 after discovering traces of hacking attacks.

South Korean news agency Yonhap news agency, quoting the police, said the pair, which includes an ex-veteran programmer of a local IT company, earned no less than 1 billion won (approximately $880,000) by marketing the stolen personal data.

Yonhap added that seven other people already placed reservations to purchase the millions of subscriber data for telemarketing purposes.

“We deeply bow our head in apology for having your precious personal information leaked… we’ll try our best to make such things never happen again,” KT said in a statement to its customers.

Hacking schemes against major companies target personal data of customers and is becoming a frequent happening in South Korea.

Image: (AFP/File, Kim Jae-Hwan)

About Francis Rey Balolong

A coffee junkie who spends most of his time writing about the latest news on social media and mobile technology. I would definitely consider myself a nerd (in the coolest most hipster way possible). That being said, I love technology, music, writing, and all things mobile. Follow me: Google+ Twitter

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