Hyundai Capital hacker arrested in Philippines

The hacker who alledgedly stole the personal information of thousands of Hyundai Capital customers has been arrested in the Philippines.

The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency’s cyber investigation unit confirmed yesterday that the suspect, surnamed Shin, 37, was arrested by Filipino police earlier this month and is currently in custody in a local prison.

A police official said that Shin is being charged on multiple violations, including illegal acquisition of private information and illegal trespassing into public communications networks and that he has been on Interpol’s wanted list since 2007, after he attacked a Web site. The official said that Korean police have asked the Philippines to extradite Shin to Korea.

According to police, Shin stole the personal data of 420,000 Hyundai Capital customers and obtained some 13,000 passwords to loan accounts at Hyundai Capital with two accomplices surnamed Huh, 40, and Jeong, 36, in April. Hyundai Capital is the financial unit of Hyundai Motor Group.

The company said in April that private information about its customers has been leaking out since February but that it was not aware of the problem until Shin and his two accomplices sent the company an e-mail demanding that it wire 500 million won ($458,000) to their accounts in exchange for not releasing customers’ confidential financial information.

The police said Shin took care of the computer technology, while Jeong and Huh, who have known each other for eight years, plotted the crimes.

The police said that Shin is the same person who attacked Korean Web portal Daum four years ago. Shin was accused of stealing the resident registration numbers of 40,000 Daum users by breaking into Daum’s customer service system and then blackmailed the company for 5 million won. Police were able to arrest the suspects who withdrew the money but failed to capture Shin at the time. Shin then fled to the Philippines and was living there until he was caught.

With Shin’s arrest, Jeong is the only one of the three involved in the Hyundai Capital hacking incident who has not been caught. Huh was indicted and is in detention in Seoul.

“We have confirmed that Jeong is now in the Philippines, so we requested the cooperation of the Philippines police,” the official said.

By Kwon Sang-soo [sakwon80@joongang.co.kr]

한글 관련 기사 [중앙일보]

현대캐피탈 정보 턴 해커, 필리핀서 검거

신운선씨, 조만간 국내 송환

현대캐피탈 고객 정보 유출 사건의 주범인 해커 신운선(37)씨가 필리핀에서 붙잡혔다. 서울지방경찰청 사이버범죄수사대는 17일 “신씨가 이달 초 필리핀 경찰에 체포됐으며 현재 필리핀 이민청이 신씨의 신병을 확보하고 있다”고 밝혔다.

필리핀 당국은 신씨가 다른 범죄를 저질렀는지 조사하고 있으며, 조만간 강제 추방 형식으로 국내로 송환될 것이라고 경찰은 설명했다. 2007년 포털사이트 다음을 해킹한 뒤 필리핀으로 도주했던 신씨는 그간 불법 체류자 신분으로 지내왔다. 그는 KT 전산망도 뚫은 적이 있다.