20 million cards compromised by one man in South Korea

Nearly half of South Korea’s residents have fallen victim to a cyber-attack resulting in names, social security numbers, phone numbers, and credit card information to be leaked.

20 million South Koreans recently have had their personal information and card data leaked according to a announcement made by local regulators. While not as high as 40 million compromised cards as with the Target data breach, the number is significant to South Korea as its entire population consists of 50 million people.

After investigating the matter, officials found the source behind the data breach. One man, a Korea Credit Bureau employee was found and arrested by the authorities after being revealed as the source of the massive data breach. Further investigation found the data was to be sold to numerous telemarketing firms.

Reports state none of the data was circulated as of yet. As a result of the breach, 27 executives from KB Financial Group, one of the card companies affected by the data breach, are resigning from their positions.

"Personal information was leaked, but hasn't been distributed," Financial Services Commission Chairman Shin Je-yoon told local reporters on Monday.

The news of the data breach comes one month after a Citibank Korea employee stole card data of 34,000 people.

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