Over 90 percent of Koreans are expressing concern about a recent series of information leaks from both the private and public sector, with most saying they are worried regardless of their own personal data being stolen, a survey showed Tuesday.
Some 94.8 percent of 500 surveyed adults across the country said that they thought the leaking of information is a serious issue, according to the poll conducted by Realmeter on Sept. 24. The survey also showed that 92.2 percent of respondents find the leaks “uncomfortable and worrying, regardless of the damage inflicted (personally).”
Only 5.7 percent said they had nothing to worry about if their information was not leaked personally.
Massive hacking attacks were conducted against mobile carriers KT and SK Telecom as well as credit card company Lotte Card recently. The data breach against SK Telecom in particular led to information related to nearly 27 million customers being stolen.
The companies have rolled out compensatory benefits for those victimized by the hacking attacks, but the survey showed that 83.1 percent of the respondents thought the government should implement a system of punitive damages in the case of such data thefts. On how the companies should compensate for damages, 49.3 percent said victims should be compensated financially, while 21.3 percent sought discounts in fees.
About 67.1 percent of the respondents in the survey said they do not trust protective measures for personal information provided by the companies. Some 88.7 percent said they consider the company’s capacity to guard customer information as the most important factor, even beyond benefits or costs.
Reports have indicated that not just corporations have been targeted by hacking attacks. A Monday report from the government showed that the Ministry and Health and Welfare and affiliated agencies have been hacked 56,208 times this year, while another report showed that 3.91 million pieces of personal information had been stolen from among all government-affiliated bodies last year.
minsikyoon@heraldcorp.com
