Hacked personal data originating from China
Have you ever wondered why you get so many unwanted spam text messages and e-mails? The answer might be found in China.
A 22-year-old Korean man named Kim is under arrest for purchasing lists of Koreans’ personal information, such as cell phone numbers and e-mail addresses, which had been hacked in China. After spending 1 million won ($880) for 31 million items of data since July of last year, Kim posted an Internet ad and sold off 10 million such items.
A 27-year-old man Lee, who runs a branch for an Internet service provider, was one of the buyers. He spent 3 million won for 140,000 phone numbers for his branch’s telemarketing scheme. The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency took in Kim and Lee without physical detention, and also detained the owners of the companies that failed to protect their customer information from computer hackers.
