[The Chosun Ilbo, July 10 2008] Nate.com Troubled by Chinese Hacking Claim

The claims of an unidentified Chinese hacker have alarmed Korea's Internet portals.

Nate.com, a leading Korean portal run by SK Communications, is dismayed by a message left on a Chinese website. Claiming to be a hacker, the writer offered to sell the personal information of 12 million Nate.com members for one million yuan (W100 million, US$1=W1,006). As if to prove the claims, the writer revealed the information of five or six Koreans.

SK Communications was thrown into panic. If the claims are true, it would be the largest leak ever of Koreans' personal information, even topping the Auction.com leak in which data on 10.8 million members was hacked.