14 DAY TRIAL // A 31-year-old man from South Korea has managed to illegally gain 160 million won ($148,000 / €107,600) after hacking into the accounts of millions of customers of Naver, South Korea’s most popular search portal.
According to The Korea Herald, the suspect, a man named Seo, has been arrested by police. He’s said to have purchased the personal details of 25 million people from a Korean Chinese individual back in August 2013. The information included names, usernames, passwords and residential numbers.
He used the information to hack into the accounts of Naver users. He sent spam and malicious emails to the accountholders in an effort to make a profit.
In addition to Seo, an individual named Hong has been arrested. Hong is suspected of developing hacking software, including one that performs brute-force attacks against Naver accounts. He is believed to have provided Seo with the Naver credentials extracted with this tool.
Three individuals who have worked with Seo have been charged, but they haven’t been detained. Police are investigating 86 other individuals believed to have purchased hacking tools from Hong.
Naver representatives have clarified that the company can’t prevent hackers from accessing customers’ accounts with information obtained from other sources. The company advises users to change their passwords on a regular basis to protect their accounts.