KT CEO Calls for Security Shift in Bid to Win Back Customer Trust After Breach
Mass Subscription Cancellations Show Growing Distrust on Korea's Second Largest Telecom
KT CEO Kim Young-Shub ushered in the New Year with a vital call to action to the company’s employees: strengthen cybersecurity and focus on restoring customer trust.
“Not only traditional information technology (IT) domains or specific departments, but every routine task we perform—from networking and marketing to customer service—is now a potential target for attacks and must be protected,” Young-Shub said in his New Year’s message.
Young-Shub’s message comes three months after the Korean telecom admitted in September that hackers might have stolen subscriber information after connecting illegal mini base stations to the operator’s network, resulting in several fraudulent micropayments. Additionally, Korea’s second-largest telecom admitted that its internal servers might have been compromised a few times, exposing customer data—and possibly even more.
Young-Shub’s pronouncements to KT staff also come on the heels of the Ministry of Science and ICT announcing just before the New Year that KT suffered a cyber intrusion involving unauthorised femtocell devices. The ministry’s confirmation concluded months of intense scrutiny and investigation, which were conducted with the Korea Internet & Security Agency.
The KT CEO also stressed the need for a shift in cybersecurity awareness within and across the company if it is to address increasingly complex and dangerous security risks.
“Without this shift in awareness, we cannot defend against increasingly sophisticated security threats,” he added.
Moreover, Young-Shub said KT will be prioritising AI transformation, with the end goals of positioning KT as a global AI powerhouse and ensuring growth down the line.
“If we continue to enhance our AI transformation capabilities and pursue bold innovation and challenges, we can sustain our growth as a premier AI transformation partner recognised by customers and the market,” Young-Shub said.
Growth, however, could prove to be doubly challenging for KT, especially with nearly 50,000 users cancelling their KT subscriptions in the four days since the company waived early termination fees in response to the breach. The mass cancellations are likely a major sign of distrust from the public—and that is exactly what Young-Shub is hoping to rectify with his New Year’s Day message.
Whether it will work or not is anyone’s guess.
