'Top 1% Dating App' Gold Spoon Hacked by 20s IT Developer, Arrested
[Asia Economy Reporter Jeong Dong-hoon] A man in his 20s who hacked a dating application (app) exclusively for wealthy individuals and threatened to leak members' personal information to the operating company in exchange for money was caught by the police.
According to the police on the 25th, the Cyber Investigation Division of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency arrested IT developer A (26) on the 18th for hacking the dating app "Gold Spoon" and detained him on charges of violating the Information and Communications Network Act and extortion.
At the end of September, A illegally accessed the Gold Spoon server and extracted personal information including property, education, job certification documents, and photos of 130,000 members, then threatened to distribute it. He is accused of demanding virtual assets worth approximately 2.5 billion KRW from Gold Spoon, the operating company. He is also suspected of leaking information of a total of 21 members multiple times on domestic and international online communities.
Gold Spoon is known to have a stringent registration verification process. Branding itself as a top 1% community, it requires applicants to submit supporting documents such as professional licenses, withholding tax receipts showing a certain level of annual income, and real estate registration documents.
The police began investigating after receiving a complaint from Gold Spoon on September 27. By thoroughly tracking server log records and threatening emails sent by the hacker, they identified A as the suspect.
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A is known to have self-taught IT skills and worked as a developer, with considerable expertise demonstrated by awards in hacking competitions. It was confirmed that he targeted the dating app he was a member of. The police have secured all the member information stolen by A, and posts containing already leaked information were immediately blocked and deleted in cooperation with community sites. After completing the investigation into A's additional leakage allegations, the police plan to transfer him to the prosecution around the 26th. The Personal Information Protection Commission has also been conducting an investigation related to this matter since mid-last month.
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