Company Reports to Personal Information Protection Commission: "No Credit Information Leaked"
Financial Regulators on Alert for On-Site Inspections and Ad Hoc Examinations
Shinhan Card announced on December 23 that it had reported to the Personal Information Protection Commission that approximately 190,000 pieces of information, including franchise owners' mobile phone numbers, are believed to have been leaked.
Specifically, it was found that a total of 192,088 records were leaked for the purpose of new card recruitment, including 181,585 franchise owner mobile phone numbers, 8,120 records containing mobile phone numbers and names, 2,310 records containing mobile phone numbers, names, birth years, and gender, and 73 records containing mobile phone numbers, names, and dates of birth.
A Shinhan Card representative explained, "According to our investigation so far, no personal information such as resident registration numbers, or credit information such as card numbers and account numbers, has been leaked."
The representative added, "This is entirely unrelated to general customer information and only concerns information about franchise owners."
According to Shinhan Card, the incident was not caused by external hacking or intrusion, but rather was found to be the result of misconduct by some internal employees for the purpose of new card recruitment.
The Shinhan Card representative stated, "We have determined that there is no risk of the leaked information spreading further elsewhere."
Shinhan Card confirmed that there has been no damage caused by the leaked information so far, but stated that it will actively compensate for any damages should they occur.
Shinhan Card has posted a notice and an official apology on its website, and is operating a page where franchise owners can check whether their information was included in the leak.
At the same time, Shinhan Card is individually notifying the affected franchise owners.
The representative said, "We sincerely apologize for causing concern with this incident and will do our utmost to protect customers and prevent similar cases from recurring."
He added, "It is necessary to further investigate whether this case constitutes 'use of personal information for purposes other than intended' or an 'information leak,' but we are taking measures equivalent to an information leak for proactive customer protection."
Meanwhile, separate from Shinhan Card's response, the entire financial sector is paying close attention to whether the Financial Supervisory Service will conduct an on-site inspection.
The Financial Supervisory Service began conducting ad hoc inspections following the Lotte Card personal information leak incident, and after the Coupang incident, it not only launched an on-site inspection but also requested to participate in the investigation of Coupang's headquarters.
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