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Photo courtesy of SK Telecom |
[Alpha Biz= Kim Jisun] Seoul, August 28, 2025 — South Korea’s Personal Information Protection Commission (PIPC) has imposed a record fine of KRW 134.79 billion (approx. USD 98 million) on SK Telecom after a hacking incident compromised the personal data of 23 million subscribers. The penalty is the largest ever levied by the Korean government in a data protection case.
In addition to the fine, SK Telecom was also ordered to pay KRW 9.6 million in administrative surcharges and to implement corrective measures, including enhanced system checks, stronger security protocols, and an overhaul of its personal data management and incident response systems.
Investigators found that hackers first infiltrated SK Telecom’s internal network in August 2021 and eventually exfiltrated the personal information of 23,244,649 users from the company’s database by April 2025. The PIPC concluded that the company failed to take adequate measures to detect and respond to the intrusion in a timely manner.
The unprecedented fine has sparked debate over fairness, as some critics question whether it is reasonable for SK Telecom — a company that suffered an external hacking attack — to face a larger penalty than firms like Google and Meta, which were found to have willfully collected user data without consent.
Alphabiz Reporter Kim Jisun(stockmk2020@alphabiz.co.kr)
