South Korean telecom attacked 600,000 torrent users with malware - cloud company customers affected

The South Korean telecom company JTBC discovered that the corporation KT (Korea Telecom), one of the largest telecommunications providers in the country, intentionally infected over 600,000 users with malware due to their use of torrents.

The issue arose in May 2020 when Webhard, a Korean cloud service provider, was flooded with complaints from users about mysterious errors. The company found that its Grid program, which relies on the BitTorrent file sharing protocol, had been compromised. An anonymous Webhard representative said: "There is suspicion of a hacker attack on our Grid Service. This is an extremely malicious interference."

During further investigation, the company noted that the internet provider for all affected users was KT. A representative from Webhard said:

"The problems only occur with KT customers. The malicious software on the user's computer creates strange folders or makes files invisible. It completely disables the Webhard application. In some cases, this even shut down the PC itself, so we reported it."

Police took appropriate measures and found that the malware came from KT's own data processing center south of Seoul. Authorities claim that KT may have violated South Korean laws, including the "Communications Secrets Protection Act" and the "Information and Communication Network Act." Police identified the culprits and charged 13 individuals, including KT employees and subcontractors directly linked to the attack, but the investigation is ongoing today.

KT stated that it directly installed malware for its customers using the Webhard Grid Service because it was a malicious application, and "had no choice but to control it." However, the main problem here was not the use of the Webhard BitTorrent protocol, but the installation of malware on customers' computers without their consent.

Instead of blocking IP addresses or responding in another acceptable manner, KT harmed Grid Service customers. Most of them are individuals, not enterprises or corporations, and they had no idea what was happening. This action led to loss of files and damage to customers' computers. Ordinary users had to deal with computer problems that arose from the company's actions.

Webhard and KT had previously quarreled over the use of the former's Grid Service. The company says it saves tens of billions of Korean won by allowing its users to use peer-to-peer services for storing and transmitting data instead of storing it on their own servers. On the other hand, the large number of Grid Service users burdens the KT network, and the two companies have turned to the court to settle the dispute.

However, in this case, the judicial authorities actually ruled in favor of KT. It stated that Webhard does not pay for using the KT network for its system and does not explain in detail to its users how the Grid Service works.

Source: Tom's Hardware