South Korea: GS Caltex Faces Class Action Suit
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Tuesday, 16 September 2008 |
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Police have arrested two employees of a subsidiary of GS Caltex and two
accomplices on charges of unlawfully downloading customer information
of the country's No.2 refinery and attempting to sell it on the black
market.
The suspects copied the private information of more than 11.25 million
people, a number nearly equivalent to the country's entire adult
population, on CDs, making it the country's largest case of data theft
ever.
The incident is the latest in a slew of public and private sector data
breaches that have Koreans living in their own, depressing version of
``Groundhog Day,'' with security experts criticizing companies for
their loose standards in privacy protection.
The fallout for GS Caltex would obviously be bigger than any of the
previous cases, causing an irrevocable stain on the company's image.
And if blood-smelling lawyers have their way, the financial damage to
the company could be significant as well.
The Korean Information Security Agency (KISA) said it received reports
from more than 9,000 people last year who claimed that their resident
registration numbers, a 13-digit code that indicates birth date, sex
and site of registration, had been stolen.
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