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Photo courtesy of Yonhap News |
[Alpha Biz= Kim Jisun] Lotte Card’s data breach is emerging as far more serious than initially reported, with industry observers warning that the number of affected members could reach into the millions. The company currently has around 9.6 million members.
According to financial authorities, an on-site inspection lasting more than two weeks revealed that the scale of the breach was significantly greater than the 1.7 gigabytes of leaked data originally reported to the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) by Lotte Card. While early projections estimated tens of thousands of affected users, regulators now suggest the figure could be in the millions.
Lotte Card announced that CEO Cho Jwa-jin will hold a press conference on September 18 at the company’s headquarters in Seoul to explain the incident and formally apologize to customers.
Concerns have also grown over the possible exposure of sensitive personal information, including payment data. In documents submitted to lawmaker Kang Min-kuk of the People Power Party, the FSS noted that “the leaked files appear to contain online payment request details, possibly including card information.”
The breach reportedly occurred between August 14 and 15, when hackers infiltrated Lotte Card’s online payment servers and extracted internal files. However, the company failed to detect the intrusion until August 31, nearly 17 days after the initial incident, raising questions over its security systems.
Alphabiz Reporter Kim Jisun(stockmk2020@alphabiz.co.kr)
