Latest news with #2023MobileWorldCongress
The Star
04-07-2025
- Business
- The Star
South Korea penalises 'negligent' SK Telecom over major data leak
FILE PHOTO: The logo of SK Telecom is pictured at the GSMA's 2023 Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona, Spain February 28, 2023. REUTERS/Nacho Doce/File photo SEOUL (Reuters) -South Korean authorities ordered on Friday SK Telecom to strengthen data security and imposed a fine after the country's biggest mobile carrier was hit by a cyberattack that caused the leak of 26.96 million pieces of user data. The measures come after SK Telecom in April disclosed that it had suffered a major leak of customer data caused by a malware attack. Shares in SK Telecom closed down 5.6% on Friday. "SK Telecom failed to fulfil its duty of care to protect USIM data and did not comply with relevant regulations," the Ministry of Science and ICT said in a statement. "Therefore, the company is deemed negligent in this incident," the ministry said as it announced the results of the government's probe into the data leak. USIM refers to universal subscriber identity module cards used in smart phones. The ministry said it would impose a fine of up to 30 million won ($21,970), and SK Telecom must enforce security measures at least once a quarter, have its chief executive officer directly oversee data governance, and increase personnel and investment in data security. Following the government's announcement, SK Telecom unveiled a variety of measures to compensate its affected customers and beef up information protection. The company will invest about 700 billion won ($513.38 million) over five years for data protection and give a discount of 50% for August subscription fees for all of its 24 million customers, it said in a statement. "All SK Telecom executives and employees take the results of the public-private joint investigation very seriously and once again sincerely apologise to customers and society for the cyber breach incident," SK Telecom CEO Ryu Young-sang said. SK Telecom also slashed its forecast for 2025 revenue by 800 billion won to reflect the cost of about 500 billion won for the customer benefit package in relation to the cyber breach incident, the company said in a regulatory filing. Science Minister Yoo Sang-im called the case "a wake-up call for information protection" for the overall network infrastructure. SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won apologised last month for the data leak and SK Telecom said it would take full responsibility for any harm caused as a result of the breach, which has caused alarm among its 23 million users over the possible theft of personal and financial information. The mobile carrier said it would start offering USIM replacements to all 23 million users for free at more than 2,600 retail stores nationwide following the cybersecurity breach. About 9.39 million users have replaced their USIMs as of late June, according to SK Telecom. ($1 = 1,363.5200 won) (Reporting by Heekyong Yang, Joyce Lee and Ju-min Park Editing by Ed Davies)
The Star
06-05-2025
- Business
- The Star
Cisco shows quantum networking chip, opens new lab
FILE PHOTO: The Cisco logo is displayed, during the GSMA's 2023 Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona, Spain March 1, 2023. REUTERS/Nacho Doce/File photo SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) -Cisco Systems on Tuesday showed a prototype chip for networking quantum computers together and said it is opening a new lab in Santa Monica, California, to further pursue quantum computing. The chip uses some of the same technology as current networking chips and would help link together smaller quantum computers into larger systems. But Cisco also believes it will have practical applications before those computers become mainstream, such as helping financial firms sync up the timing of trades or helping scientists detect meteorites. "Thereare a whole bunch of use cases," Vijoy Pandey, senior vice president of Cisco's Outshift innovation incubator, told Reuters. "You need to synchronize clocks and the timestamps on all of these snapshots that are taking place from across the globe." Cisco is the latest mainstream tech firm to jump into quantum computing. Alphabet's Google, Microsoft and Amazon have all announced quantum computing chips in recent months, and Nvidia plans to open its own quantum computing lab. Startups such as PsiQuantum are also raising hundreds of millions of dollars to build systems. While those firms all vie to create more and more "qubits" - the fundamental unit of quantum computers - Cisco is working to link them up. The company says its chip, which it developed with researchers from the University of California Santa Barbara, works by causing quantum entanglement in pairs of photons, and then sending one of the pair to two separate quantum computers. For a short time, Cisco says, the quantum computers can use those entangled photons to communicate instantaneously, no matter how far apart they are - a phenomenonof quantum physics that Albert Einstein referred to as "spooky action at a distance." Pandey emphasized that Cisco does not yet have a timeline for when the chip will generate revenue and that the chip is only a prototype. "To build out that quantum network, the first building block that you need is an entanglement chip," Pandey said. "Here's the first building block of that." (Reporting by Stephen Nellis in San FranciscoEditing by Marguerita Choy)
The Star
28-04-2025
- Business
- The Star
SK Telecom shares plunge after data breach due to cyberattack
FILE PHOTO: The logo of SK Telecom is pictured at the GSMA's 2023 Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona, Spain February 28, 2023. REUTERS/Nacho Doce/File Photo SEOUL (Reuters) -SK Telecom shares fell as much as 8.5% on Monday to hit their lowest level since August last year, after South Korea's biggest mobile carrier disclosed it suffered a leak of customer data earlier this month caused by a cyberattack. The company said in a statement it would take full responsibility for any harm caused as a result of the breach that was detected on April 18. It described the incident as a large-scale leak of data due to malware, without providing more details. SK Telecom also said it would start offering free universal subscriber identity module (USIM) replacements to all 23 million users for free at more than 2,600 retail stores nationwide from Monday following the cybersecurity breach. SK Telecom also urged customers to sign up for its USIM Protection Service, which it said provided the same level of prevention as replacing a USIM card. About 5.54 million people had signed up for the service, accounting for nearly a quarter of SK Telecom's 23 million subscribers as of Sunday, according to the company. SK Telecom shares closed down 6.7%, posting the biggest daily drop since March 2020, versus the benchmark KOSPI's 0.1% rise. (Reporting by Heekyong Yang and Jihoon LeeEditing by Ed Davies)
