South Korean authorities have introduced the extradition from Thailand and arrest of a suspected hacker, believed to be the mastermind behind an organised marketing campaign of assaults that stole hundreds of thousands of {dollars} price of shares from celebrities, together with BTS singer Jung Kook.
Native information studies have confirmed that the 34-year-old Chinese language man, escorted from Bangkok to Incheon Airport in South Korea within the early hours of Friday 22 August, is suspected of embezzling over 38 billion gained (US $27 million) from rich people.
Between August 2023 to January 2024, “Mr A”‘s gang hacked a number of monetary accounts after stealing private data from Korean telecom companies, and assuming the victims’ identities.
Within the case of Okay-Pop star Jung Kook, the id theft is assumed to have taken place after he enlisted for his obligatory South Korean navy service.
33,500 HYBE shares (price an estimated 8.4 billion gained or US $6 million at present trade charges) had been reportedly illegally siphoned out of the BTS singer’s securities account in January 2024 by hackers who opened three brokerage accounts in Jung Kook’s title.
It has been reported that Jung Kook’s Massive Hit Music company had been fast pondering sufficient to identify the payout and have the funds returned. Nevertheless, they didn’t handle to stop the alleged sale of 500 stolen shares to a 3rd social gathering.
After the Massive Hit Music company filed a legislation swimsuit, the shares allegedly bought by the hacker to the third social gathering have now been returned to Jung Kook.
Earlier this 12 months Massive Hit Music mentioned that it had hardened the safety of its artists within the wake of the assaults:
“We enhanced our safety measures concerning artists’ personal units and private data along with the authorized measures.”
Investigators say that the suspected hacker was tracked with the help of Interpol and Thai authorities, after it was decided he had entered Thailand in April.
Authorities in Seoul have issued a press release to the police saying that the suspect has admitted a few of the allegations in opposition to him, while denying others.
Headlines in South Korea associated to cybercrime have turn out to be widespread place in South Korea, with a large information breach occurring on the nation’s largest telecoms firm, SK Telecom, earlier this 12 months – with delicate SIM card information of hundreds of thousands of consumers uncovered.
Final 12 months it was reported that even the workplace of the South Korean president was not immune from being hacked, when it was introduced that North Korea had managed to breach the e-mail account of considered one of Yoon Suk Yeoi’s aides.
