All Members of Criminal Organization Arrested for Stealing and Selling 8.5 Million Personal Data Records

Hacking of Over 1,000 Websites

The Cyber Crime Investigation Unit of the Jeonnam Provincial Police Agency announced on the 1st that they have arrested 13 suspects and detained 7 on charges of violating the Act on Promotion of Information and Communications Network Utilization and Information Protection (hereinafter referred to as the ‘Information and Communications Network Act’) for illegally obtaining and selling customer information by hacking vulnerable internet websites after receiving hacking requests on SNS.

The suspects are accused of hacking 425 websites and illegally acquiring and selling about 8.5 million pieces of customer information.

Jeonnam Provincial Police Agency building exterior

According to the police investigation, they operated in a cell-like structure including professional hacker Mr. A (31), broker Mr. B (26), hacking requester Mr. C (30), and Mr. D (32), who commissioned and distributed malicious programs.

In particular, professional hacker Mr. A reportedly received requests through broker Mr. B and others, then used self-developed hacking programs to deliver hacked personal information or provided the requester with administrator account credentials (ID, password) and access URLs so they could directly access the site administrator accounts.

Professional hacker Mr. A specialized in creating and distributing malicious programs, such as a program that automatically hacks a site when the site address is entered after running the program, enabling requesters to hack directly, and a mobile phone app (.apk) that, when installed on a phone, transmits call logs, contacts, messages, and more to a remote server, which he produced and sold.

The police also arrested Mr. C, the representative of a text message site who operated a business using the hacked personal information, and Mr. D, a loan shark who commissioned and distributed malicious programs.

During the process of arresting the hacking requesters, the police obtained clues about another hacker and additionally apprehended Mr. E (41), the CEO of a security consulting company who hacked about 700 sites including sports streaming sites using remote servers.

During the arrests, the police seized about 20,000 personal information files stored on external hard drives and are currently analyzing them. Through tracking funds, they also took pre-indictment seizure measures on approximately 450 million won of criminal proceeds.

The Jeonnam Provincial Police Agency, in cooperation with the National Police Agency and the Korea Internet & Security Agency, notified the affected companies of the hacking incidents and implemented protective and preventive measures.

A representative of the Jeonnam Provincial Police Agency emphasized the importance of crime prevention, stating, “To eradicate ‘personal information leakage crimes,’ which serve as the starting point of all crimes, it is necessary to update antivirus and security programs to the latest versions.”