The Nate Hacking Scandal Hasn’t Gone Away…

Remember during the summer there was the uproar after Nate was hacked and the personal details of millions of Koreans were stolen?

Well, recently Nate were fined millions, or I should say billions of won for this serious discrepancy. Proper order.

Anyway, if you’re thinking that this was the end of it, think again.

Allow me to add an anecdote to this situation which may be based on coincidence but contains so much coincidence that it is likely to be a result of an account being hacked.

My wife is a user of Cyworld, the site which was initially hacked. She doesn’t really bother with Facebook or anything like that and hardly checks her email, unlike her husband, but she likes to post the odd photograph on the internet for her friends to see. Many of these photographs involve the two of us doing something adorable. There are no national secrets, no bank details, nothing of much value on the black market, except for Herself’s real-name verification details, especially her ID number. When she heard about this attack she immediately changed her password on all sites which could be reached through her email and the same password. There was not much else that could be done right?

Anyway, we never thought much of it until this afternoon while checking her email these two emails appeared in her inbox:

: From Hyundai Home Shopping

My wife has not used Hyundai Mall for over a year. While I’m here, there was also this little titbit…

From the good people at Nate

These emails are from Hyundai Mall and Nate saying that a request was made to change her password and for her to follow the following steps. My wife NEVER requested to do this.

What’s particularly upsetting about the second one from Nate is that there were three emails in her account. That surely points to the fact that it was not a mistake as the perpetrator attempted to access her accounts on a number of occasions.

Now, I’m not one to go around building conspiracy theories and pointing the finger, but I’ve been using the same Yahoo email account for longer than ten years and I’ve signed up with countless services with the same email, and it has to be said the same password in many cases (yes, I’m lazy), and I have never, ever, received an unsolicited email like this. The only logical answer is that someone tried to access my wife’s accounts not once but at least four times, and it is highly likely that this person has her details from the hacking into the Nate system during the summer. They must be trying other accounts too and possibly with a certain amount of success, still there has been little or no mention of this.

If you are reading this and you know someone who was hacked, tell them to change their details and keep an eye on the their email accounts, bank details, and be very wary of submitting vital information such as their ID number. But that goes without saying, right?

5 thoughts on “The Nate Hacking Scandal Hasn’t Gone Away…”

Interesting, thanks. I signed up for Nate messenger about four years ago, and recently got an email like that.

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Conor

October 10, 2011 at 10:16 pm

Thanks for the comment Brian. Maybe I’m over-analysing this but to me it’s more than a coincidence.

Incidentally, you were the 10,000th visitor to my blog, so congratulations (unfortunately I can offer no prize). I’m celebrating this popularity right now, and I’m also secretly proud to have a celebrity of the Korean blogging world such as yourself to visit.

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Conor

October 11, 2011 at 11:43 am

I think if you’re getting the email then that means they can’t get in right? That’s provided they don’t have your email details…dum, dum, dum!!! 😉

To be honest I don’t know what’s happening about it either. Usually you hear a thing or two about it but as far as I know nothing else has been mentioned. I think they’ve changed their registration process to a more conventional name and password system that doesn’t require your ID number etc. and that’s why the emails are being sent out. I would love to think that this blog post will raise awareness but I’m not that naive anymore.

But you never know, maybe something is being done about it. I can’t read Korean that well so maybe there is ‘report this incident’ link to click on…

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lol, aww, thanks Conor. I think you have Roboseyo to thank for referring me, though.

I had totally forgotten I registered with Nate back in 2006 or 2007. I had assumed that Nate would delete the account after a couple years of inactivity. I can’t for the life of me remember my ID and password—I don’t even have Nate messenger on this computer—and am wondering if I should even bother, or let it go.

What are people doing about it? I mean, if people are getting emails like this, which may serve as evidence of tampering, can they report this suspicious account activity?

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