SKT Offers Free USIM Replacement to Ease Customer Concerns After Hacking Incident

From 10 a.m. on the 28th
Same Benefits for MVNO Customers

SK Telecom will begin offering a free USIM card replacement service starting April 28 in an effort to alleviate customer concerns following a recent cyber breach incident.

On April 25, SKT held a "Customer Information Protection Measures Enhancement Briefing" at its headquarters in Euljiro, Seoul, where it announced additional security measures, including the free USIM replacement.

At the briefing, SKT CEO Yoo Youngsang stated, "We sincerely apologize to our customers and society for the significant inconvenience and concern caused. As an additional measure, we will provide all customers with a free USIM card replacement upon request."

This free USIM replacement service will begin at 10:00 a.m. on April 28 and will be available once to mobile subscribers as of midnight on April 18. Customers can replace their USIM cards (including eSIM) at T World stores and airport roaming centers nationwide. Some watch and kids phone models are excluded.

In particular, SKT has decided to reimburse customers who replaced their USIM cards at their own expense between April 19 and April 27. The same free replacement benefit will also be provided to MVNO customers who use the SKT network.

SKT expects that the protective effect for customers will be further enhanced when this free USIM replacement service is combined with the already implemented "USIM Protection Service" (free of charge) and strengthened measures to block abnormal authentication attempts (FDS).

Meanwhile, following the cyber breach incident, SKT has raised the criteria for blocking abnormal authentication attempts to the highest level and is actively recommending the "USIM Protection Service." Over the past three days (April 22-24), 2.06 million people newly subscribed to the service, with the cumulative number of subscribers reaching 2.4 million as of midnight on April 25. SKT also plans to upgrade the service in May so that customers can use the USIM Protection Service even while roaming.