[Alpha Biz= Kim Jisun] SK Telecom, which was hit with a record-breaking fine by South Korea’s Personal Information Protection Commission (PIPC) over a data breach affecting approximately 23 million subscribers, has filed an administrative lawsuit to contest the penalty.

The company said on the 19th that it submitted a lawsuit to the Seoul Administrative Court seeking to overturn the PIPC’s decision to impose the fine. The move came one day before the legal deadline on the 20th to file such a suit under relevant laws. The case is being represented by Kim & Chang, South Korea’s largest law firm.

“SK Telecom wants to receive a thorough judicial review of the fine imposed by the commission,” a company official said.

In August last year, the PIPC announced the results of its investigation into a hacking incident involving SK Telecom, concluding that personal data of 23,244,649 users had been leaked. The compromised information included mobile phone numbers, International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI) numbers, USIM authentication keys, and a total of 25 categories of personal data. Citing insufficient security measures, the commission imposed a fine of 134.791 billion won, the largest ever levied since the watchdog’s establishment. The amount significantly exceeds the combined 100 billion won in fines imposed on Google and Meta in 2022.

Industry observers expect SK Telecom to challenge the appropriateness of the fine calculation in court. The company is reportedly arguing that mitigating factors should be taken into account, including its commitment of 1.2 trillion won to compensation measures and information security innovation following the incident, as well as the absence of direct financial losses suffered by users as a result of the data leak.

SK Telecom is also expected to stress that, unlike the Google and Meta cases, which involved intentional and profit-driven misuse of personal data, the incident in question resulted from an external cyberattack rather than deliberate wrongdoing.

 

 

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