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Venture Businessman Held for Hacking Info on 110,000 People
From: InfoSec News <isn () C4I ORG>
Date: Sat, 22 Jul 2000 02:10:03 -0500
http://web.lexis-nexis.com/more/cahners-chicago/11407/6093551/1 Korea Times July 21, 2000 A 24-year-old venture businessman has been detained for stealing information on 110,000 online customers of an unidentified marketing agency by hacking the company's servers. The anti-cyber crime team of the National Police Agency said the businessman, identified only as Choi, tried to sell the information to Internet consulting firms. According to police, Choi came to know the user ID of one of his primary school alumni who had been working for the marketing agency on May 25. Then, he logged on to the agency's servers with the user ID and stole a roster featuring names, workplaces, duties, telephone numbers and addresses of 11,000 customers. Police said Choi sent an e-mail stating that a roster containing information on hundreds of thousands of people will sell just for 5 million won' to 130 Web consulting firms. The suspect e-mailed samples featuring information on 100 customers to those who showed interest in his earlier e-mail,'' a member of the anti-cyber crime team said. Police called the incident the country's worst-ever cyber crime with respect to the number of victims. The incident, in particular, caused broad-based ripples because the suspect used the Window's Netbios,'' Microsoft Corp.'s information-sharing software, o access the online marketing agency's servers. Netbios enables anyone to log on to a company's computer servers using the user ID of a person if the network is not protected by a certain security system. The leakage of the information could have created an environment conducive to large-scale cyber crimes if the suspect had spread the information through compact discs or online,'' a computer expert said. Police said Choi had been allured into such an online crime after suffering frustration from the fluctuation of the Internet business. The suspect, who is now out of a Seoul-based university temporarily, enjoyed a dotcom party'' only a few months ago, heading an e-commerce business he founded after being discharged from military service. The company, which usually handled discounted products targeting teens online, has shown spectacular growth since its establishment, raising its capital to 1.2 billion won in a matter of months. Choi opened a spacious office in southern Seoul and had more than 40 employees. But the burst of the bubble in March that came with the collapse of technology companies on the Kosdaq market meant an end to his business with investors disappearing all of a sudden. Choi ran out of funds and most of his staff left the company. Frustrated, Choi felt tempted to commit crime after he chanced upon the proced re to log on to the marketing agency's computer system. Police said Choi had admitted to all charges brought against him. In the meantime, a university student was also arrested for stealing and selling information on customers who subscribed to an online brokerage company. The student, 23, identified only as Lee, is charged with taking 660,000 won in cash and other prizes in exchange for providing personal information to Internet companies. ISN is hosted by SecurityFocus.com --- To unsubscribe email LISTSERV () SecurityFocus com with a message body of "SIGNOFF ISN".
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