KT Personal Data Leak Penalty to Be Decided This Month... How Much in Fines?

The South Korean government's penalty for KT's 2022 personal data leak and unauthorized small payments incident is set to be finalized by this month. The Personal Information Protection Commission plans to hold a full meeting on May 29 to deliberate and decide on penalties, including fines. KT suffered a breach in September 2022 affecting over 22,000 customers, with 368 individuals suffering 777 unauthorized small payments totaling around 243 million won. The maximum potential fine under current laws could reach 200 billion won, calculated as up to 3% of KT's annual wireless service revenue. However, the final penalty will consider mitigating factors like KT's post-breach compensation efforts and aggravating factors such as delayed reporting of security vulnerabilities.