Significant data breach prompts penalties for SK Telecom

Reuters reports that leading South Korean telecommunications provider SK Telecom has been ordered by the country's Ministry of Science and ICT to pay an almost $22,000 fine and implement security measures every quarter following a cyberattack disclosed in April that compromised 26.96 million universal subscriber identity module cards.

"SK Telecom failed to fulfil its duty of care to protect USIM data and did not comply with relevant regulations. Therefore, the company is deemed negligent in this incident," said the ministry in a statement, which also compelled the telco to have its CEO lead data governance, as well as bolster data security investments. On the other hand, SK Telecom has pledged to spend $513.38 million for data protection measures over the next half decade while providing subscription fee discounts for all its subscribers next month. "All SK Telecom executives and employees take the results of the public-private joint investigation very seriously and once again sincerely apologize to customers and society for the cyber breach incident," said SK Telecom CEO Ryu Young-sang.