The government said on the 24th that, depending on the results of an investigation, it could consider waiving penalties for KT after server hacking and unauthorized small-amount payment incidents occurred.
Ryu Je-myeong, the Second Vice Minister of the Ministry of Science and ICT, said at a hearing on the hacking crisis held that day by the Science. ICT. Broadcasting. and Communications Committee of the National Assembly, "If KT violated the duty to provide safe communications in this situation, I think a penalty waiver should naturally be implemented."
He added, "The investigation team will clearly establish the results on whether there was a violation of duty and take action."
Vice Minister Ryu, referring to the case of SK Telecom in 4th when subscribers' penalties were waived due to a hacking incident, explained, "We made that judgment because the investigation confirmed that it was clearly a breach of the duty, as a telecom operator, to provide safe communication services."
KT avoided answering whether it would grant a blanket waiver of penalties. It said, however, that it is actively considering waiving penalties only for the more than 20,000 people whose personal information was leaked due to the server hacking.
KT CEO Kim Young-seop, asked by Rep. Han Min-su of the Democratic Party of Korea whether the company would consider waiving penalties, answered, "We are actively considering it for 20,030 customers who suffered damage up to information leakage."
Kim added, regarding whether to waive penalties for all customers, "We are considering it, but we will review it after seeing the final investigation results and considering the damage."
Kim acknowledged poor management of the company's femtocell micro base stations in connection with the unauthorized small-amount payment incident. Kim said, "Management was lax, and after the incident we took measures to prevent them from connecting to the network."
Kim avoided giving a direct answer to questions about his future position. When Rep. Hwang Jeong-a of the Democratic Party of Korea asked, "Will you step down after taking responsibility for this incident, without clinging to another term as CEO?" Kim replied, "It is inappropriate for me to say that now," adding, "I will first do my utmost to resolve the situation."