[News Space=Reporter seungwon lee] SK Telecom President Yoo Young-sang bowed his head in response to the leak of SK Telecom subscriber SIM card information.

SK Telecom decided to provide free SIM card replacement to subscribers who wish to do so starting on the 28th in order to alleviate concerns about secondary damage to subscribers related to this hacking incident.

SK Telecom CEO Yoo Young-sang held an emergency meeting at the SK Telecom building in Euljiro, Seoul on the 25th and said, “I sincerely apologize to customers who have trusted and used SK Telecom and to society for the great inconvenience and concern we have caused.” He added, “We will implement additional measures to provide free SIM card replacement to all SK Telecom customers if they so desire.”

However, there is also criticism that this decision is a 'passive, delayed response' as it was made as customer confusion grew without any investigation into the cause.

SKT has not yet been able to specify the extent of the damage caused by the hacking or which customers have been affected. As a result, many users are increasingly worried that they have been affected, and many are looking for self-rescue measures. In addition, there are growing concerns about secondary damage in the financial sector.

According to Rep. Choi Soo-jin of the People Power Party, a member of the National Assembly Science, Technology, Information, Broadcasting and Communications Committee, the company first became aware of the fact that internal system data had been moved unintentionally at 6:09 p.m. on the 18th. However, it was not reported to the Korea Internet & Security Agency (KISA) until the afternoon of the 20th, nearly two days later, and there are suspicions of a ‘delayed report.’

SK Telecom will provide a free SIM card (including eSIM) replacement service to its subscribers starting at 10:00 AM on the 28th. This service will be provided to all subscribers who wish to replace their SIM cards, and will be available at T World stores and airport roaming centers nationwide.

SK Telecom will also apply the free SIM card replacement service retroactively to customers who replaced their SIM cards at their own expense between the 19th and 27th, and will separately refund the costs already paid by the customers. In addition, the same measure will be applied to low-cost phone subscribers using SK Telecom’s network. Each low-cost phone company will announce the implementation period and method later.

Since the recent cyber breach, SK Telecom has raised the standards for blocking abnormal authentication attempts to the highest level to prevent illegal SIM card duplication. In addition, real-time monitoring is also being continuously strengthened.

In the case of the SIM card protection service, 2.06 million new subscribers signed up over the past three days starting on the 22nd. The cumulative number of subscribers is 2.4 million.

SK Telecom CEO Yoo Young-sang said, “SK Telecom places the highest priority on customer trust, and we will further strengthen our security system and establish measures to strengthen the protection of customer information,” adding, “Through this incident, we will once again be reborn as a company that is faithful to the basics and responsible.”