The importance of personal information became bigger is due to the expansion of the Internet and smart gadgets. In the virtual space, you are represented by your personal information. It is used almost every time when you are trying to do something on-line, such as buying goods, playing games, working on your SNS relationships and etc. Many of our everyday activity takes place in this on-line world now, which makes personal information take a big part of your life.
However, though the importance of personal information is rising, it seems like the security for it is becoming worse.
Even though personal information leakage has been a constant problem since the 20C, it recently took on more speed from late 2013 to the current days.
In March, a publishing company and many game sites reported personal information theft. Followed by this, in April and May, two of the major cosmetic companies reported for the burglary as well. After some of these relatively small leakages, a mass leakage occurred among the financial world including NH, KB and Lotte. There have been many concerns with problems that might occur on one’s privet life. The experts are also focusing on the secondary problems like withdrawal accidents and downgrade in credit rate.
Why Do the Identity Thieves Want Your Personal Information?
The stolen personal information is used in various ways. When the hackers decode a firm’s security code and gets the information out, the collected data is immediately handed to a broker or a black market. Then the data sold to thugs in different places, many of which have their headquarters in China. The data is not only used to send out spam mails, which is a common misconception. The insurance companies, local loans, unauthorized privet moneylenders, and credit collectors use the personal information to make illegal bank accounts. Also, it causes secondary problems like withdrawal accidents and downgrade in credit rate. Crimes like voice phishing, smishing and farming occurs to the majority of victims of personal information theft. With the stolen personal data with information about your mobile phone numbers, Social Security Numbers and the address of where you live, people easily become victims of the criminal acts. According to a study done by the KISA (Korea Internet & Security Agency) it has been said that the cost of damage estimates to the total over 18 billion won. In 2012 the total of reported cases stayed low as 17, but in 2014 it is now 23,861, which is more than a hundred times bigger than the previous numbers.
How is Korea & Other Countries Coping With Such Problems?
After the massive leakage accidents, the experts are estimating the loss of the three major groups; KB, Lotte, and NH cards to be more than 500 billion Korean won. From the analysis of Professor Kim Sang-bong (Hansung University), it is estimated that the three groups have spent 164 billion won to bring the lost customers back, 28 billion to reissue the cards, and 17 billion to manage the secondary damages. Plus they have suffered the loss of at least 107 billion won from the suspension, and paid 171 billion for the penalty. The total sums up to about 500 billion, which is around 30% of the yearly profit of the groups. Despite the great financial loss, experts including Prof. Kim agree that the lost customer trust is the greater loss than the monetary damage. However, the compensation made by the Korean companies didn’t quite serve the angry customers that they had let down. Most major groups including KB and NH reacted in practically the same way. The SMS messages with basic information concerning personal information were sent out to customers monthly, and few office directors bowed out to take the responsibility. Though the customers acquired compensation of both monetary and psychological pain caused by the incident, the institutions stayed silent to their calls.
The incident can be compared to those that happened in different countries. The T.J.Maxx (TJX) in USA had the world’s greatest personal information leakage on records in 2007. It has been calculated that over 100 million of personal information including credit card numbers and Social Security Numbers were sneaked out by hackers. Then, in 2013 another firm from USA, TARGET suffered from the personal information theft as well. About 100 million customers’ information has been stolen according to a research in May, 2014. The number may soon be breaking the records of the prior incident. To take the responsibility, TARGET announced that they will be compensating the customers by 90 dollars for each damage cases. Comparing the case in Korea and the case in USA, there is a big gap in reimbursement of the firms. TARGET, which is a small retail store chain in USA, announced to compensate 90 dollars for each damage cases. Korea’s 3 financial groups compensated by sending text messages which cost around
one quarter, and by giving a national apology on the media.
The Korean financial institutions’ acts are clearly disappointing, compared to the cases from other countries. Though the institutions announced to compensate one hundred percent of the secondary damages, the reimbursement to the majority of the customers didn’t meet the expectation. The irresponsibleness of the major institutions is causing
distrust and anger among most customers.
The job of the financial institutes is connecting the customers and the key factor of economy flow; money. A lot of important information is flowed in to the institution in the progress. If the security of the accumulated personal information is uncertain, the customers will leave the financial institutions; causing economical disorder and chaos in the system. Personal information leakage should not be considered as a mere incident, but should be taken as a serious problem that might shake the economic system itself. It seems in order for Korea to become a financially advanced country, the firms need to take the matter of personal information leakage more seriously and take the responsibility for the problem.

Shin Hyun-a (Editor-in-Chief) 다른기사 보기