Information
The South Korean operator claims the record-breaking wonderful is extreme and doesn’t think about the corporate’s proactive response
Final 12 months, SK Telecom (SKT) revealed it had suffered an unlimited knowledge breach in 2022, affecting 26.9 million prospects. The Private Info Safety Fee (PIPC) subsequently fined the corporate 134.8 billion received (round $91 million) for failing to guard buyer knowledge.
Now, SKT has mentioned it’s going to enchantment the wonderful, with experiences suggesting that the operator deems the wonderful to be unjustified and disproportionate.
The wonderful is the biggest ever delivered by the PIPC, far exceeding the earlier document: a 100 billion received ($68 million) wonderful imposed collectively on Google and Meta in 2022 for amassing person knowledge for personalised advertisements with out clear consent.
“We’re searching for an in depth judicial overview of whether or not the PIPC’s penalty is suitable,” mentioned SKT in a press release.
The penalty from the PIPC was calculated primarily based on SKT’s cellular income, a reality which SKT says differs from earlier PIPC rulings. In a 2023 case towards SKT’s rival LG Uplus, for instance, the ensuing wonderful primarily based on purely on the income generated from the precise system that was hacked, leading to a a lot smaller penalty (6.8 billion received, or $4.6 million).
The operator additionally notes that there was no reported direct or oblique injury to prospects on account of the breach.
This declare, nevertheless, has been challenged by the Korea Client Company (KCA), which was approached by 58 of the affected prospects searching for dispute mediation final 12 months.
“Contemplating the joint investigation performed by the federal government and the personal sector in July and the ruling by the PIPC, it was acknowledged that the hacking incident brought on injury to customers,” the company mentioned.
“SK Telecom holds accountability for compensating particular person customers for the injury,” it added.
In December, the KCA ordered SKT to supply affected prospects 100,000 received ($67) in compensation within the type of 50,000 received ($33.5) discount in month-to-month subscription charges and 50,000 received in credit usable as money equivalents.
If the ruling stands and each buyer makes use of the supply, SKT’s whole estimated payout could be round 2.3 trillion received ($1.5 billion) – better than the corporate’s 1.43 trillion received ($970 million) internet revenue in 2024.
The operator is reviewing the ruling and will but contest it.
SKT has to date pledged to take a position 1.2 trillion received ($783 million) in enhancing its cybersecurity measures and compensating prospects affected by the breach.
Maintain updated with all the newest telecoms information with the Whole Telecom publication
Additionally within the information
World Communication Award Winners 2025
Ofcom clears the best way for satellite-to-smartphone companies
LG Uplus’s AI voice name app glitch leaks person knowledge
