SK Telecom on the 16th denied a hacking incident in which an international hacking group claimed it was selling the company's customer data, saying it was "not true at all."
SK Telecom said, "After analyzing the sample data, website capture screens, and FTP screens that the hacker posted on the dark web (Telegram), we confirmed that none of the claims are true, including the posting of a website that does not exist at our company."
It added, "The 100GB of data the hacker claims has never been leaked," and explained, "For now, there is no issue." Earlier, a security-focused outlet reported that the international hacking group "Scattered Lapsus$" announced on a Telegram channel that it would sell a 100GB sample of SK Telecom customer data for $10,000 (about 13.86 million won). The report was followed by a claim that the data included sensitive information such as customers' IDs, names, phone numbers, emails, addresses, dates of birth, and subscription dates.
The hacker also claimed, "About 42 Koreans have contacted me," adding, "I don't know whether they want to arrest me or buy the data." They threatened that unless SK Telecom negotiated, they would release customer data on 27 million people and administrator access rights. They also used a name similar to the hacker group "Lapsus," which hacked Samsung Electronics, LG Electronics, Microsoft (MS), and Nvidia, but it was not confirmed whether they are the same group.
SK Telecom flatly denied the claims and is leaning toward the possibility that they are false. Authorities said they are checking the facts.