Overview
- The Personal Information Protection Commission fined KT 53.9 billion won on Thursday after finding a major breach of the company’s wireless network.
- Investigators said attackers built illegal mobile base stations by extracting authentication certificates from lost KT equipment and used them to access the network between October 8, 2024 and September 5, 2025.
- The leak exposed phone numbers and device identification numbers for 16,647 users and led to unauthorized transactions that cost 368 people about 240 million won in total.
- The regulator found destroyed servers and signs of evidence tampering, filed a police complaint accusing KT of obstructing an earlier March 2024 hacking inquiry, and referred LG Uplus to police for suspected obstruction.
- The commission ordered KT to strengthen security for small‑cell base stations and personal data protection, a move that could prompt wider enforcement and tighter rules for how carriers manage physical equipment and certificates.