In this year's National Assembly Science and ICT and Korea Communications Commission oversight audit, TVING CEO Choi Ju-hee and CJ ENM CEO Yoon Sang-hyun are expected to be summoned as witnesses in connection with the incident involving the theft of 40 million accounts.
According to industry sources and the National Assembly on the 22nd, the National Assembly Science and ICT Committee is scheduled to hold a plenary session at 10 a.m. today to process the proposal titled "Request for Appearance of Witnesses and Reference Persons for the 2026 Government Performance Audit." The list includes 30 witnesses and 11 reference persons to be discussed.
Reviewing the witness list requested by the National Assembly Science and ICT Committee, Choi Ju-hui (CEO) and Yoon Sang-hyeon (CEO) are named to inquire about the circumstances of the TVING hacking incident and customer compensation measures. Previously, the Ministry of Science and ICT announced the results of its investigation into the TVING personal information breach that occurred at the end of May this year, revealing that a total of 39.54 million accounts (including duplicates) were compromised: 22.06 million active accounts, 17.37 million inactive accounts (8.5 million dormant and 8.87 million deleted), and 110,000 test accounts. The leaked information also included 361 projects (totaling 30.35 GB) under development at TVING, as well as CI (linked information) referred to as online resident registration numbers.
The National Assembly is expected to question Choi (CEO) and others regarding the circumstances of the personal information breach, responsibility for inadequate protection systems, and delays in reporting to authorities. Additionally, shortly after the Ministry of Science and ICT's announcement, TVING offered compensation measures including 5,000 won worth of points per person, hacking and phishing peace-of-mind insurance, and upgrades to premium viewing environments; the appropriateness of these measures is also expected to be scrutinized.
The National Assembly Science and ICT Committee also plans to summon Lee Jong-hyun, Chief Information Security Officer of SK Telecom, as a witness following last year's large-scale personal information breach at the company. The reason cited is to verify post-incident actions regarding SIM card protection, improvements in information security management systems, compensation for user damages, and measures to prevent recurrence. The committee also decided to summon Lee Sang-woon, KT Jeong Bo-bo-an (Head) (Executive Vice President), and Hong Kwan-hee, LG Uplus Chief Information Security Officer (Executive Vice President), to inquire about response measures following personal information breach incidents at the three major mobile carriers.
In addition, in connection with recent consecutive personal information breaches, the following individuals were included on the witness request list: Kim Jin-ah, CEO of Meta Korea; Kim Jeong-hun, CISO of Woowa Brothers; Park Soo-kyung, CEO of Duo; Hong Seung-il, CEO of Gangnam Unnie; Im Han-wook, CEO of Toss Payment; Shin Yong-seok, CISO of Toss Payments; and Brett Anthony, CISO of Coupang.
Regarding the controversy over fees imposed by the Google Play Store, Yoon Gu, President of Google Korea, was summoned as a witness. In connection with responsibility for failing to prevent the distribution of narcotics via social media, Shin Chang-seop, CEO of X (formerly Twitter) Korea, was also required to appear as a witness.
in TECH
