[Asia Economy Reporter Koo Chae-eun] Online education company Megastudy Education, which suffered a personal information leak affecting 5.7 million members, has been hit with a fine close to 1 billion KRW.
On the 25th, the Korea Communications Commission (KCC) held its 38th meeting and announced that Megastudy Education was fined 954 million KRW and issued a corrective order for violating Article 28 (Protection Measures for Personal Information) of the Information and Communications Network Act. According to the KCC investigation, Megastudy Education experienced a hacking incident last year on its higher education site, resulting in the leakage of personal information of most of its 5.7 million members.
Megastudy Education had previously faced a fine of 219 million KRW in 2018 after a hacker leaked 1,233,859 member records (1,117,227 excluding duplicates) from its elementary and secondary education site in July 2017. The KCC imposed a total fine of 1.4667 billion KRW and penalties of 135 million KRW on nine companies, including Megastudy Education, Gabia, and SJW International, whose personal information was leaked.
A KCC official stated, "Despite being fined in 2018, Megastudy Education failed to fulfill its personal information protection obligations, resulting in the loss of mitigation benefits and the imposition of aggravated penalties. According to relevant standards, we plan to proceed with filing charges with the local prosecution office."
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