Watch out, portal sites, the ID thieves have come. The Ministry of Information and Communication (MIC) reported on August 14 that the internet users, or Netizens, steal each others' identification information to sign up for Internet portal sites.
MIC Director Kang Shin-ook began by saying: "Since the start of the real-name identification system by Korea's top leading portals like Naver and Daum in June, more than nine million Naver subscribers checked their usernames. Now they have erased 104,000 usernames mainly due to identity theft." Kang further noted how determined the MIC is to learn how many are related to identity theft. The news is terrifying 27 million users of Naver.
The ministry was partially involved in this Web real-name identification system in late June, applying it only to Naver and Daum. The policy was expanded to other sites last month and currently involves 21 Internet portals and 14 online media sites. Under the regulations, users of the 35 most frequently visited sites have been forced to provide their identification data including names and resident registration numbers in order to take a part in online postings. Naver even allowed for an individual to have three different usernames as long as he or she filled in the identification data. Daum is unable to compile the number of identity thefts because it didn't ask for identification data before the launch of the real name regulation. Naver is lost in this sense as well. "We are not sure about how much identification data was stolen since Web surfers don't have to report it to us, but approximately 1,500 people called or wrote to us about their private information and most of the inquiries were related to identity theft," Naver spokesman said.
Meanwhile, the MIC found eight Web sites that are ignoring the requirements of the Web real-name identification system.
"We strongly demanded them to comply with the real name system, but Yahoo! Korea and PandoraTV are not following our direction," MIC Director Kang stated. If they continue to ignore the real-name identification system, they will face a maximum fine of 30 million won.
