[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Gwan-joo] The CEO of an IT company who developed a free viewing program for real estate registry copies and illegally accessed and collected millions of real estate information records, then sold some of them, has been arrested by the police.
The Cyber Safety Division of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency announced on the 22nd that it has arrested A (47), the CEO of the IT company, on charges of violating the Information and Communications Network Act, the Personal Information Protection Act, and computer-related fraud.
According to the police, A is suspected of developing an illegal program that allowed viewing of real estate registry copies without fees from September 2017 to May 2020, and illegally accessed and collected 2.6 million real estate information records. Considering that the fee for viewing a registry copy is 700 KRW per case, the police estimate that A obtained approximately 2 billion KRW in illicit gains.
A is also accused of selling the acquired real estate information to real estate information provider company B, earning about 400 million KRW in profits. The information sold by A is understood by the police to include 1.84 million personal information records within 860,000 real estate registry copies.
The police plan to further investigate whether company B knowingly traded the illegally obtained real estate information and whether both parties were in collusion.
A police official explained, "Measures have been taken to strengthen the payment system and security policies of the Internet Registry Office."
© The Asia Business Daily(www.asiae.co.kr). All rights reserved.
