Over 280m individual records leaked from public, private entities since 2012

More than 280 million personal data records have been leaked from public and private organizations over the past eight and a half years, a ruling party lawmaker said Wednesday, calling for reinforcing relevant liability insurance regulations.

Rep. Kim Byung-wook of the Democratic Party, citing data from the Personal Information Protection Commission, said about 280,440,000 individual records were leaked from public institutions, private companies and information and communication service providers from 2012 to August this year.

In the public sector, 38 institutions reported the leakage of 2,089,000 personal data records, including names, resident registration numbers, mobile numbers and addresses, while 245 private companies exposed 225,606,000 individual records.

The number of personal data records leaked from 199 information and communication service providers from 2016 to August this year totaled 52,745,000.

Despite the enormous scale of personal information leakage, the number of liability insurance contracts signed up to compensate for related damage stood at a mere 11,813 as of the end of August, Kim said, demanding the scope of mandatory insurance subscription be expanded.

The lawmaker noted that public and private institutions are not subject to compulsory liability insurance subscription for personal information leakage, while there are difficulties in identifying information and communication service providers subject to mandatory insurance subscription.

Under the current law, information and communication service providers with more than 50 million won ($43,000) in sales in the previous year and a daily average of over 10 million users in the last three months of the previous year are obliged to buy liability insurance to compensate for personal information leakage.

But the Personal Information Protection Commission has had difficulties in obtaining accurate business details on individual information and communication service providers, Kim pointed out.

"Public and private institutions should be subject to mandatory liability insurance to strengthen their compensation for the victims of personal information leaks," Kim said. (Yonhap)