LG U+ made contact with hacker group claiming data theft

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

LG U+ has made contact with a hacker group that claims to have customer data stolen from the company.

In a series of posts in January, the group offered to sell what it claims to be leaked customer data from LG U+. Whether the group is the actual culprit in the LG U+’s data leakage incident is unknown, as it failed to provide solid proof for its claim that the hacking was done in November, according to LG U+.

The group claims that the personal data of 20 million customers have been leaked, which is far more than the 290,000 that LG U+ initially confirmed.

An LG U+ spokesperson said that through a cybersecurity contractor it paid “several hundred dollars in order to secure the leakage path used for hacking."

But “the path provided by the seller was meaningless, and that could never be the actual access route for the hacking,” said the LG U+ spokesperson.

According to LG U+, it got in contact with the group not because of its threat to put the data up for sale, but in order to figure out how the hacking was carried out.

“It is crucial to figure out how the hacking was done in order to prevent a recurrence,” said the spokesperson.

LG U+ has been under government investigation as the 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 Feb. 3 that the personal data of additional 110,000 customers were found to be leaked as well. The personal information includes names, dates of birth and phone numbers of LG U+ current and former users

BY SHIN HA-NEE [shin.hanee@joongang.co.kr]