Hackers asking for $2.66 million or they'll release the data

Jul 28, 2016 14:53 GMT  ·  By

South Korean authorities investigating a data breach at one of the country's top online retailers say that North Korea is blackmailing the said company, asking for 3 billion won ($2.66 million / €2.39 million).

According to reports from South Korean media, on Monday, authorities announced they were investigating a data breach at Interpark Corp, a company that runs the interpark.com online shopping portal, one of South Korea's biggest online stores.

Hackers stole data of 10 million Interpark users

Authorities said that the attacker managed to steal data of about ten million Interpark customers. No other details were provided at that time regarding the incident, except that it happened in May, but it only recently came to light.

Two days later, on Wednesday, June 27, South Korean authorities made the first public statements regarding this incident after conducting a basic investigation surrounding the IP addresses involved in the Interpark hack.

South Korean officials said they tracked down the attack to an IP from North Korea's address space, which was previously used in other cyber-attacks against South Korean properties.

In the last few years, South Korea has accused North Korea of multiple cyber-attacks against its businesses and government infrastructure.

Hackers demanded $2.66 million in Bitcoin

Investigators also revealed that, after the May breach, the hackers contacted Interpark's management and attempted to extort the company.

The attackers asked the company's execs via email for 3 billion won (South Korean currency) or they would release the stolen data on the public Internet, exposing their failure to protect their customers. The hackers wanted the money transferred to their accounts as Bitcoin.

Besides the evidence related to the IP addresses and the techniques used in the attacks, investigators also said that these emails, written in the Korean language, contained words and vocabulary expressions that are only used in North Korea.