Humbled LG Uplus: "Tripling Security Investment"

All Customer SIM Replacements... Spam Detection App Provided
CEO-Direct Security Team... Preemptive Vulnerability Checks
"Apologies for Delay Due to Ongoing DDoS Attack Prevention"

[Asia Economy Reporter Oh Su-yeon] LG Uplus is expanding its information security investment to 100 billion KRW, three times the current level, to prevent recurrence of incidents such as the recent leakage of 290,000 customer information records and service disruptions caused by Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks. The company plans to replace USIMs free of charge for all customers and prepare a comprehensive damage support plan.

Hwang Hyun-sik, CEO of LG Uplus, held a press conference at the Yongsan headquarters in Seoul on the 16th and officially apologized while announcing these measures.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

CEO Hwang said, "We sincerely apologize to customers who experienced inconvenience due to information leakage and internet service errors," adding, "This is the result of not focusing on the fact that the security system is the foundation of the telecommunications industry. We will re-examine everything from the basics from the customer's perspective."

Regarding the personal information leakage, CEO Hwang stated, "We are making every effort with related agencies to identify the cause and route of the leakage," and "So far, no additional leaked information has been identified, but we are preparing care measures for customers who are anxious." He also said, "Immediately after the DDoS attack occurred, we formed a company-wide crisis management task force (TF) and the entire company, from the network division to the customer center, is responding urgently," adding, "Although DDoS attacks continue, we have prevented additional disruptions through preemptive blocking and traffic rerouting."

LG Uplus plans to replace USIMs free of charge for all customers, not limited to those affected, and is preparing to provide the 'U+ Spam Call Alert' service free of charge. Additionally, it will form a damage support council with academia, legal circles, and civic groups to prepare a 'comprehensive damage support plan.' This will cover not only mobile network operator (MNO) customers but also Internet TV (IPTV) and internet customers. A 'Damage Report Center' will be operated, and dedicated teams for each field will implement measures such as identifying the cause of the incident and executing improvements.

Taking this incident as an opportunity, LG Uplus plans to completely overhaul its security system. To prevent recurrence, it has created a 'Cyber Safety Innovation Plan' that includes ▲expanding information protection organizations, personnel, and investments ▲pre-inspection and simulated hacking by external security experts ▲application of advanced security technologies and research and investment in future security technologies ▲training of cyber security professionals ▲publication of cyber security innovation activity reports.

The company will strengthen the Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) and Chief Privacy Officer (CPO) as organizations directly under the CEO and recruit security experts in each area. The annual information security investment will be expanded to 100 billion KRW, three times the current level, within a short period. An Information Security Committee composed of external experts will be operated. Penetration defense training, previously conducted internally, will be made public by hosting a world-class white-hacking competition and publishing the results. These cyber security innovation activities will be reported annually in the 'Cyber Safety Innovation Report.' The report will transparently and thoroughly disclose major activities responding to cyber threats, new technologies, organizational and personnel strengthening, and investment status, with the CEO personally overseeing the related content.

At the press conference, CEO Hwang and LG Uplus executives bowed their heads in apology for the incident.

On January 1, a hacker claimed to possess 20 million LG Uplus customer information records and posted on an illegal information site that they would sell them for 6 bitcoins. LG Uplus recognized signs of personal information leakage on January 2 and reported the incident to the Korea Internet & Security Agency (KISA) and others the next day. On January 4, to identify the leakage route, they contacted the personal information seller through a security cooperation company. Through this process, 590,000 records have been obtained so far, and after removing duplicates, the number of affected customers is identified as 290,000. The hacker currently claims to possess 30 million customer information records. The leaked information includes names, phone numbers, addresses, resident registration numbers, dates of birth, device models, USIM numbers, and device numbers.

Lee Sang-hyuk, CTO of LG Uplus, said, "Analysis shows that the latest customer number creation date is June 2018, so it is estimated to be past data," adding, "Payment-related financial information is not included. However, it could be used for spam and smishing." He also stated, "We are monitoring through multiple security specialist companies. Posts on illegal information sites are being deleted in cooperation with the government."

Internet service connection errors caused by DDoS attacks occurred three times on January 29 and twice on February 4. After the first attack, the defense system was reinforced starting with major equipment, and all equipment reinforcement was completed by February 5. Kwon Jun-hyuk, head of LG Uplus Network Division, said, "We will continue to discover latent risks and continuously advance defense systems against various types of attacks."

There are criticisms that LG Uplus's response to the information leakage and service disruption was delayed. CEO Hwang said, "The matter should have ended after it occurred, but it did not," adding, "Regarding the DDoS attacks, since they continued and we focused all efforts on blocking them, issuing apologies or statements was delayed."

Regarding suspicions that the use of Chinese Huawei equipment was the cause, CEO Hwang responded, "This incident is unrelated," adding, "We have had the equipment separately inspected and implemented measures by two or three globally top-level security companies."

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