HYBE, South Korea’s largest entertainment company, has suffered a massive personal information leak after an external hacking attack — with leaked data including resident registration numbers, passport numbers, bank account numbers, card numbers, and medical information.
HYBE (Credits: HYBE Corporation)
The company issued an official apology after an internal security inspection detected abnormal external access in an external vendor’s document preview solution linked to the electronic approval system. Further investigation revealed a similar unauthorized intrusion into the internal expense processing system.
How the HYBE Hack Happened
The breach occurred in two separate incidents. The first leak ran from 1:16 p.m. on September 12 to 11:14 a.m. on September 13; the second from 10:41 p.m. on October 3 to 3:05 p.m. on October 5. In both cases, internal documents stored on the two system servers — including the personal information inside them — were leaked externally.
The victims include HYBE’s business partners and some current and former employees. Leaked data varies by individual but includes names, resident registration numbers, foreigner registration numbers, passport numbers, account numbers, card numbers, mobile and general phone numbers, email addresses, home addresses, medical information, and dates of birth. Some affected individuals also had automatically generated information exposed, such as IP addresses, employee numbers, and department names.
HYBE’s Response to the Data Leak
Following the incident, HYBE blocked the IP addresses and access routes used in the attack, immediately suspended the problematic external document preview service, and implemented emergency security measures. The company completed notification procedures with the Korea Internet & Security Agency (KISA) and the Personal Information Protection Commission, and is individually informing affected parties.
HYBE warned the public not to respond to contacts impersonating the company or employees demanding account info, money, or sensitive materials, and to avoid opening email attachments or clicking URLs from unknown sources. The company vowed to “strengthen access control and monitoring systems” to prevent a recurrence.
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Source: Koreaboo — read the full story there.