13 Million Koreans Exposed After MapleStory Breach

A hacking operation left more than a quarter of the entire population of South Korea exposed after the backup databases of Nexon’s Maple Story, a highly popular MMORPG game, were breached.

Player names, usernames, passwords and the registration numbers that are equivalent to social security numbers were stolen as a result of the incident, reports the Korean Times.

Even though the more sensitive data was encrypted and the part of their system that stores transaction and bank account information was not affected, Nexon is still advising customers to make sure they change the passwords, especially if they’re used to safeguard other accounts as well. Hopefully this is just a precaution and not a sign that the encryption is easy to break by a skilled cyber mastermind.

The breach that took place on November 18 was reported to the Korea Communications Commission (KCC) about three days later.

The KCC started an investigation which hopes to determine precisely how the incident occurred, but also to find out whether Nexon was negligent in handling sensitive information belonging to their account holders or not.

The scenario comes after Venturebeat revealed the company’s intention of going public on the Tokyo Stock Exchange on December 6.

At the time, predictions claimed that since the organization moved its headquarters from Korea to Japan, their value would increase considerably, but this hacking operation could seriously affect their image and with it, their value on the stock market.

Only if we consider the fact that Maple Story has 100 million users worldwide, 19 million of which from Korea, we come to realize the true proportions of this incident. Today 13 million were exposed, but if the rest of their infrastructure is in the same condition, who knows how many of their customers may suffer in the future.

Companies who handle immense quantities of data should put customer safety first, instead of their position on the stock market.