Some 13 million users of a Korean online game company had their personal information exposed after hackers broke into the firm’s systems last Friday, a Korean news-site reported over the weekend.
A report on Korean Times said the hackers broke into online game company Nexon, operator of the popular “Maple Story.”
“Maple Story” claims to have 100 million users in nearly 60 countries, including 18 million users in Korea. Launched in 2003, the simple role-playing game has been especially popular among elementary school students in Korea.
“We have set up an investigation team, comprising of experts in private information and security, to get further details,” the news-site quoted a Korea Communications Commission (KCC) spokesperson as saying.
The KCC is looking into whether Nexon was negligent or in violation of the regulations regarding private information protection.
Nexon had the private information of around 13 million users, including names, user identification, resident registration number and passwords, Korea Times reported.
But Nexon said the password and the resident registration numbers are likely to be safe as they were encoded to protect personal information.
It added the account numbers or transactional information needed for game item transactions was not hacked.
Nexon said hackers broke into the backup database of its “Maple Story” online role-playing game last Nov. 18.
The gaming company reported the matter to the KCC and requested police investigation.
For its part, the KCC requested Nexon to immediately inform users of the hacking to minimize damage from the private information leakage.
It also advised users to change their passwords for other Internet sites.
But Korea has suffered a series of hacking incidents during the past few years, including the private information leakage of over 10 million users of Auction, an open market operator, in early 2008.
Shinsegae Mall had information of 20 million clients stolen last year, while Hyundai Capital worried its users as their critical information such as passwords and credit ratings got stolen.
The most serious recent scandal involved SK Communications, which runs the popular web portal Nate, where personal information of more than 35 million users was leaked last July. —MRT/LBG, GMA News
