[Reporter’s Notebook] Kyowon Group Must Take the Hacking Incident More Seriously

"I helped people around me use Red Pen, and now I feel so embarrassed."

This is what a parent who subscribed to Red Pen said after hearing the news about the Kyowon Group hacking incident. This parent, who has two children in kindergarten and elementary school, also chose the learning material based on recommendations and trust from those around them. The parent confessed, "I feel especially guilty, thinking, 'I could have just used it myself, but I ended up exposing other families' children to the risk of a personal information leak.'"

While the world is moving beyond digital transformation (DX) into the era of artificial intelligence transformation (AX), the learning material market operates differently. Although paper-based learning materials have moved online and AI-driven learning services have emerged, many companies still conduct their business through traditional face-to-face methods.

For both Kyowon Red Pen and Kumon, you can only sign up for their products by meeting with a dedicated instructor in person. The promotional booths that are still commonly seen in and around apartment complexes symbolize this system.

Physical interaction and rapport-building among parents, children, and instructors form the foundation of trust among all three parties. The learning material market has grown by relying on this trust. At the root of Kyowon, which has become a major company with annual sales exceeding 1 trillion won over its 40-year history, lies the trust that parents place in entrusting their children's information and the company's identity as an educational enterprise. For this reason, the standards of security and responsibility that consumers expect are inevitably higher.

It is questionable whether Kyowon's response aligns with this history and with consumer expectations. The company's apparent attempt to minimize the scale of affected customers or compromised servers could make the problem worse. Their statement that they are "taking follow-up measures to prevent secondary accidents and damages" sounds vague. There is no clear information about what specific actions are being taken or how consumers can tangibly experience these measures.

Recent events, such as the Coupang incident, have shown that attempts to calm public anxiety with generic statements can backfire significantly. Taking an approach that only offers compensation strictly according to calculations is risky. As a company that has grown alongside children's development and is built on an asset of trust that cannot be measured in numbers, Kyowon needs to critically assess whether its current response is appropriate.

Jang Pyungsun, Chairman of Kyowon Group, is delivering a congratulatory speech at the 40th anniversary ceremony of Kyowon Group held on November 3 last year at Kyowon Challenge Hall in Gwancheol-dong, Seoul. Kyowon Group