"If Not Addressed, You Can't Use Your Phone"... Warning for Overseas Travelers, What Happened?

Roaming Service Partially Restricted
Due to SKT USIM Information Leak Incident

With the upcoming May golden holiday, user inconvenience is expected as roaming services are partially restricted due to a USIM information leak incident at SK Telecom, the nation’s largest mobile carrier.

Due to a USIM information leak incident at SK Telecom, roaming usage is expected to be partially restricted, causing inconvenience to users. An SKT official stated, "Currently, we are guiding customers to disable the USIM protection service before subscribing to the roaming service when traveling abroad," and added, "Even if customers do not subscribe to the USIM protection service, we are doing our best to prevent damage to customers using overseas roaming through enhanced internal monitoring." Getty Images

According to the industry on April 23, SKT is actively guiding customers to sign up for its USIM Protection Service free of charge as a measure to address customer concerns following a recent hacking incident. The USIM Protection Service is designed to fundamentally block third parties from illegally duplicating or stealing a customer’s USIM information and accessing telecommunications services on other devices.

Some users are expected to experience inconvenience as subscribing to the USIM Protection Service means they cannot use overseas roaming services. Photo by Getty Images

The issue is that customers who subscribe to the USIM Protection Service cannot use overseas roaming services. The USIM Protection Service is set up to prevent the use of voice, text, and data services abroad. This is intended to prevent unauthorized use in the event that a USIM is lost or stolen overseas.

In response, SKT announced that within the first half of this year, it will upgrade its system so that customers can use roaming services even while the USIM Protection feature is enabled. The company explained that this aims to reduce the inconvenience of having to disable roaming services in order to use the USIM Protection Service.

An SKT official stated, "Currently, we are guiding customers to disable the USIM Protection Service before subscribing to the roaming service when traveling abroad," and added, "Even if customers do not subscribe to the USIM Protection Service, we are doing our best to prevent damage to customers using overseas roaming through enhanced internal monitoring."

SKT announced that around 11 p.m. on April 19, malicious code was implanted in its internal system, resulting in the leak of some subscribers’ USIM information. The company stated that it immediately removed the malicious code and isolated the affected system, and is currently investigating the exact cause and scale of the leak together with relevant authorities. So far, there have been no reports of the leaked information being misused.