[privacy] Korea: ISPs Suspected of Massive ID Theft

[Paul Ferguson]

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Via ITWeek.co.uk (props, Pogo Was Right).

[snip]

Police are investigating South Korea's two biggest ISPs on suspicion that
they broke identity theft laws on more than seven million occasions. The
two companies, KT and Hanaro Telecom Inc, are suspected of signing up more
than seven million customers for services without their permission,
according to police sources cited by local media today.

Many of the company's internet service customers were apparently illegally
signed up for additional services by telephone sales agents, who did not
obtain the written consent required under law, police say. Reports say the
two ISPs may have illegally signed up 7.3 million of the 10 million
households and businesses in the country that rely on them for internet
service.

More than 60 employees and agents working for the two firms are now being
questioned by police. KT has announced that it is cooperating with
authorities and that it will improve internal data security procedures.
Hanaro Telecom CEO Park Byung-Moo made an apparent apology at a press
conference today, saying "he feels sorry to customers for causing such
trouble," according to the Korea Herald.

[snip]

More:
http://www.itweek.co.uk/vnunet/news/2196315/isps-suspected-identity-theft

- - ferg

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--
"Fergie", a.k.a. Paul Ferguson
 Engineering Architecture for the Internet
 fergdawg(at)netzero.net
 ferg's tech blog: http://fergdawg.blogspot.com/