Man fined for hacking shop displays to show Yoon's photo, insults
A 32-year-old man has been fined 5 million won ($3,640), for hacking into the digital advertisement boards of two stores in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, and displaying insulting comments for days.
The Seoul Northern District Court on Tuesday found the defendant guilty of interference with business via damage of property, along with violating the Act on Promotion of Information and Communications Network Utilization and Information Protection.
The defendant surnamed Park hacked into the telecommunications network of a restaurant and a nail polish store in Seongnam on Feb. 2, and displayed his own message on the large boards intended for advertisements. The message said, "Just live with it, you dogs and pigs," alongside a picture of ousted President Yoon Suk Yeol, now under criminal trial for insurrection and abuse of power in connection with his December imposition of martial law.
Owners of the two establishments were unable to replace the problematic messages for a while, a full day for the restaurant and six days for the nail polish shop.
At the time of the offense, Yoon had been undergoing an impeachment trial for the aforementioned martial law declaration on Dec. 3, and had been under custody for investigation on suspicion of insurrection.
"The defendant's crime inflicted substantial damages to the businesses of the victims ... He has not been forgiven or compensated for the damages, but (the court) considered the fact that he has shown remorse for the crime and has no prior criminal records," the court said in its ruling.
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