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LG U+ hit by second DDoS attack in a week

Published: 06 Feb. 2023, 17:55 Updated: 07 Feb. 2023, 19:36

LG U+ headquarters building in Yongsan District, central Seoul, Monday [YONHAP]

LG U+ suffered its second outage in a week on Saturday, this time its data services going down for almost an hour.

The company claimed both were the result of denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks.

The government issued “a strong warning” to the telecommunications provider, and promised a strict investigation of the company’s cyber security systems.

According to LG U+, a sudden increase in data traffic led to a network disruption from 4:57 p.m. to 5:40 p.m., and again from 6:07 p.m. to 6:23 p.m., on Saturday.

During the outage, which totaled 59 minutes, payment systems using the LG U+ network were partially disrupted in stores and restaurants in some regions.

The company apologized for the outage, which it said was caused by a DDoS attack, and promised to take measures to prevent future attacks.

On Jan. 29, LG U+ reported network disruptions also caused by DDoS attacks, which lasted for a total of 63 minutes, first at 2 a.m. and again at 6 p.m. that day.

The Ministry of Science and ICT and Korea Internet & Security Agency (KISA) said that they reorganized and expanded the investigation team that has been looking into the telecom company’s personal information leakage in January to further scrutinize its cyber security systems.

LG U+ has been under ICT Ministry investigation as personal information of around 290,000 of its customers was hacked on Jan. 2.

The figure was 180,000 when initially reported last month. LG U+ said on Friday that personal data of additional 110,000 customers was found to be leaked as well. The personal information includes names, dates of birth and phone numbers of LG U+’s current and former users.

The ICT Ministry and KISA started an investigation into the data leakage case on Jan. 11. They added more security experts to inspect LG U+’s cyber security system and come up with improvement plans following the DDoS attacks.

The ministry said in a release that it “issued a strong warning to LG U+, which is a major carrier, regarding the lack of a basic breach response system” on Sunday.

Lee Jong-ho, minister of science and ICT, said that “we consider the recent series of incidents as a severe situation that may lead to a disruption in everyday life.”

Lee emphasized that “the ministry will demand LG U+ implement responsible corrective measures and push for policy improvements, including regulation revisions regarding major telecom service provider breach response systems.”

LG U+ shares traded at 10,840 won on Kospi Monday, down 2.25 percent from the previous trading day.

BY SHIN HA-NEE [[email protected]]