Far more Hana SK Card holders\' data leaked than first notified

A far higher number of customers at Hana SK Card Co. had their private information leaked in the latest data theft case than previously reported, police said Friday. Investigations found that the personal information of up to 97,000 customers at the credit card issuer had been stolen and leaked in the data theft reported earlier this month, the police said. The card firm, a joint venture between Hana Financial Group Inc. and SK Telecom Co., initially said, when reporting a suspected employee to the police, that the information of about 200 customers was leaked. The compromised information included names, addresses and resident registration numbers of credit card holders. The police said the stolen information seemed to have been conveyed to outsiders through the e-mail of the suspect, a Hana SK Card marketing employee surnamed Park. The leakage at the credit card firm, the latest in a series of personal information thefts at financial institutions, added to jitters over privacy protection in cyberspace and security breaches involving financial transactions. Samsung Card Co., a major local credit card issuer, suffered a similar data leak caused by an employee earlier this month while Hyundai Capital Service Inc. was punished by the financial regulator after customer information was hacked from its system.