Huge Personal Data Leak by Korean Banks

Many of the top banks in Korea had their customer information stolen, and sold.  Which is a scary thought when in ones home country but much worse when you are in a foreign country.  Apparently, when the major banks were redoing their security systems, a guy kept a copy of all of the data and proceeded to sell it.  It blew up over the weekend and shut down the main bank sites on Monday, with all the people checking to see if their information was leaked.  Here is a link about what happened (http://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20140119000340&mod=skb).

The big problem wasn't the leak itself but the lack of support or help the foreign community got.  There are about 1.5 million foreigners in Korea (factory workers, teachers, etc.) and the only thing they had available to check to see if your information was leaked was a Korean link, which you couldn't even access without knowing how to find it on the Korean site.  I have been in Korea for a little over 4 months and only know a little Korean, so trying to find the site was a hassle.  It was a hot mess.  And there is backlash over the lack of support for foreigners, whose info was stolen right along with the Korean info. (http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/biz/2014/01/488_150133.html)

The only real option foreigners had (at least the teachers that I talked to), was having their co-teacher or a Korean friend help them.  I luckily found the site and went through the steps myself but actually finding the site was a hassle and pain.  The other option (which I was told by my co-teacher who didn't want to help me with the Korean site) would be to go to the bank and talk to them.  You are lucky if you have a bank teller who can speak English, let alone help you with what you are doing.  To make matters worse, the banks have been so packed for the last two days.  You would be stuck at the bank for at least an hour because of all of the people.  It is crazy.

Like I said, I found the site and put all of my information in.  I was one of the lucky ones, my information was not leaked!  But the process and lack of foreign help made it horrible.  This was the biggest leak of personal information in Korea and they know they have foreign customers, they didn't even try and help them or apologize to them for the leak.  It is pathetic and really disheartening.