14 DAY TRIAL // In January, we learned that an engineer from the Korea Credit Bureau (KCB) stole and sold the personal and financial details of 20 million people. The South Korean Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) has decided to suspend the firms from which the data has been stolen.
KB Financial Group, NongHyup Financial Group and Lotte Group are not allowed to issue new cards until May 16, 2014, the Wall Street Journal reports. Each of them will also have to pay a fine of 6 million KRW ($5,658 / €4,128).
The individual responsible for the breach, a temporary employee of the KCB, has been arrested. He’s said to have stolen the information between October 2012 and December 2013. While only 20 million records were sold to marketing firms, the breach impacts up to 104 million payment card holders.
The FSC has taken measures against the credit card companies because they’ve failed to protect their customers’ information.