Hyundai Capital admits to unprecedented information leak

A recently announced hacking incident at Hyundai Capital marked an
unprecedented systematic accessing of customer financial information by
hackers, resulting in major aftereffects. The breach in the computer
network has not only sunk confidence levels to rock bottom for financial
companies, for whom security is essential, but also spawned concerns about
secondary effects due to leaked passwords and other information.

Hyundai Capital announced Friday that the personal information accessed
through the hack consisted of name, email, and cell phone information for
420 thousand people, approximately 23 percent of all customers, and that
it bore no direct connection with financial transactions. However, Vice
President Hwang Yoo-no said Sunday that there was ?a possibility that some
secret information was hacked, including customer passwords and credit
ratings,? indicating that it appeared likely that passwords were leaked
for around 13 thousand customers.

In the past, there have been leaks of financial information amounting to a
few hundred people through efforts by criminal organizations, but no cases
such as this one of information being hacked for more than 10 thousand
people at one time. In short, the company?s security system did not
function at all. Observers are predicting no major damages in the
immediate future, as the passwords accessed were for ?minus loan? cards.
But the possibility does exist for secondary effects since many
individuals use the same password at various locations when conducting
transactions with financial companies.

The revelation of systematic criminal efforts by hackers has the potential
to develop into a problem for the financial world as a whole rather than
Hyundai Capital alone, as it is impossible to guarantee that the security
systems of other financial companies such as banks and credit card
companies are safe either. For this reason, many observers are saying that
a full reexamination of the security systems for South Korean financial
companies has become unavoidable.