Court orders SK Communications to pay compensation for info leakage

A South Korean court ordered on Sunday the operator of the country's third most-visited Internet portal to pay out compensation to a user whose information was leaked during last month's massive hacking attack.

Two popular Web sites operated by SK Communications Co. were hacked in late July, causing the private information of 35 million users to be leaked. The cyber attack was the worst online breach ever in the world's most wired country.

On Aug. 1, Chung, a 25-year-old man identified only by his last name, asked the Seoul Central District Court to deliver a summary judgement to order SK Communications to pay 1 million won (US$925) in compensation for the security breach. The court said it ordered the operator of the Nate search engine and Cyworld social networking Web site to pay the compensation.

SK Communications said it cannot accept the court's decision, saying that it will take legal action.

"As police investigations into the hacking incident have not yet to be finished, we will raise objection to the court order and file a lawsuit against it," said an official at SK Communications.

In a similar case, a 40-year-old lawyer, known by his surname Lee, filed a damage suit against SK Communications, demanding 3 million won in compensation for the leakage of his personal information and mental stress. It was the first damage suit related to the hacking.

A flurry of similar suits are likely to follow as several Internet communities have been considering filing class-action suits against SK Communications. (Yonhap News)