Gang Sentenced to Probation in First Trial for Implanting Malware and Manipulating Search Terms in PC Rooms Nationwide

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Jung-yoon] A group accused of implanting malware-laden programs in PC bangs nationwide and manipulating portal site search terms through them has been sentenced to probation.

Judge Son Jeong-yeon of the Seoul Eastern District Court Criminal Division 6 sentenced Kim (39), CEO of the program development company, and Jo (39), CEO of a viral marketing company, who were indicted for violating the Act on Promotion of Information and Communications Network Utilization and Information Protection, to 2 years and 6 months in prison with 4 years probation, and 1 year and 6 months in prison with 3 years probation, respectively, on the 14th. Additionally, Kim and Jo were ordered to pay fines of approximately 110 million won and 54 million won as criminal proceeds confiscation.

Programmer Sung (38), who conspired with them, was sentenced to 1 year and 6 months in prison with 3 years probation, and sales staff Lee (28) was fined 7 million won and ordered to pay approximately 14 million won in confiscation.

Judge Son stated, "They disrupted the search services of the victim company (portal site operator) and caused inconvenience to users," adding, "While the nature of the crime cannot be taken lightly, the defendants admitted their wrongdoing, showed remorse, and considering they have no prior criminal records or other punishments except fines, this was taken into account in sentencing."

Kim and others are accused of supplying game management programs containing malicious functions to 3,000 PC bangs nationwide from December 2018 to November last year, creating so-called 'zombie PCs' totaling 210,000 units. They also generated profits by manipulating portal site search terms through these PCs.

Furthermore, it was investigated that they promoted to companies wanting portal site search term marketing that they could manipulate related search terms, earning over 400 million won in revenue over one year.

The group manipulated search terms 160 million times on portal sites using zombie PCs, registering 94,000 keywords as related search terms and 45,000 as autocomplete search terms. They also stole and sold 560,000 user IDs and passwords entered by PC bang users when accessing portal sites, according to the investigation.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.