Recently South Korea Telecom (SKT), the major phone carrier in South Korea, suffered a major data leak that affected its users. This company has around 23 million users that could be potentially affected.
Apparently, they leaked USIM (universal subscriber module) related data, which in theory could be changed if the sim card of the phone is replaced. For this reason, SKT offered its customers to replace all USIM cards. However, this could take months due to the massive size of this carrier, and the vulnerability will be around for any hacker that gets the leaked data.
Also, South Korea is a country that relies a lot on verification through SMS and phone number, and it is largely used everywhere, including government, banking, stores and even the famous PC bangs.
That’s why the Monday after the hacking was confirmed, a lot of subscribers went to the SKT stores, which went out of stock quite soon.
Let’s hope that this crisis doesn’t affect many customers, but if you are an SKT customer, you should change your USIM card ASAP and even consider changing your phone number. Also, you should talk with your bank to block the possibility of asking for a loan through the phone.
Take care.
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