A timeline of South Korean telco giant SKT’s data breach

In April, South Korea’s telco giant SK Telecom (SKT) was hit by a cyberattack that led to the theft of personal data on approximately 23 million customers, equivalent to almost half of the country’s 52 million residents. At a National Assembly hearing in Seoul on Thursday, SKT chief executive Young-sang Ryu said about 250,000 users have switched to a different telecom provider following the data breach. He said that expects this number to reach 2.5 million, more than tenfold the current amount, if the company waives cancellation fees. The company could lose up to $5 billion (around ₩7 trillion) over the next three years if it decides not to charge cancellation fees for users who want to cancel their contract early, Ryu said at the hearing. “SK Telecom considers this incident the most severe security breach in the company’s history and is putting forth our utmost effort to minimize any damage to our customers,” a spokesperson at SKT told TechCrunch in an emailed statement. “The numbe ... Read full article.