Korean Web Portal Daum Hacked

The number two Web portal of Korea, Daum Communications, has been infringed but the country kept it under covers for eight long months, from July 2007 to February 2008.

In July 2007, a professional hacker hacked into the login ID and password of the customer service centre employee of Daum Communications and in October 2007, accessed the personal details of almost 7,000 users.

A man, surnamed Shin, has been identified as the hacker and is supposed to be on run in the Philippines. Shin blackmailed Daum Communications for financial rewards and even threatened to reveal personal information of the users. However, he was arrested but the company kept the case hidden.

According to the statement published on March 28, 2008 by THE KOREA TIMES, Daum Communications apologized to its customers for causing trouble due to hacking.

Daum further added that it has notified its customers who will be affected by the leak of information to change their passwords. After finding out the leak of information, the Web portal immediately blocked access to the portal from outside. Almost 70,000 users were affected by the hacking.

The company announced the accident of hacking recently to help police in arresting the suspect. In 2005, the hacker of Daum Web portal made same threats to Naver, the top Korean Web portal.

A series of hacking into major Websites is a biggest threat to Internet security. An online shopping Website, Auction, in February 2008 reported that its security system has been hacked and the transaction record of almost 17.6 Million customers was exposed.

However, the information leakage has done no direct damage but still, Auction advised its users to change their passwords. Even Naver advised its users to change their password as many users use same passwords and login ID for different sites.

The Auction's information leakage problem is more serious than Daum as its Web portal does not have any records of users' financial information like bank account or credit card number.

Lee Seung-jin, Public Relations Official, Daum, said that the leaked information includes mobile numbers and resident registration codes of the users, as per the statement published on March 28, 2008 by THE KOREA TIMES.

Related article: Korean Duo Indicted For Sending 1.6 Billion Spam Mails

» SPAMfighter News - 4/4/2008