The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency’s cyber investigation unit said yesterday that it arrested a suspect and issued an arrest warrant for another in the recent extortionist hacking attack on computer servers of Hyundai Capital, a financial unit of Hyundai Motor Group.
On April 7, Hyundai Capital reported to police that it had received an e-mail from hackers demanding 500 million won ($458,000) in return for not releasing customers’ confidential financial information. The company was unaware that its database had been hacked.
The company has said that up to 420,000 customers had their personal information from their accounts breached, and that its servers had been hacked into since February.
Police said yesterday that they issued an arrest warrant for a suspect surnamed Huh, 40.
According to police, Huh visited the Philippines four times since last December and plotted the crime with an accomplice surnamed Jeong, 36, who is residing in the Philippines. The police said that Jeong and Huh have known each other for eight years.
Police said Jeong informed Huh last December that he knew a famous hacker and suggested Huh join him to “earn a fortune by hacking personal information of customers of a famous company.” Jeong told Huh to “come up with 20 million won to pay the hacker,” police said.
Huh then borrowed the money from a man surnamed Cho, 47, police said.
The hacker they hired, according to police, is a man surnamed Shin, 37, allegedly the same hacker who attacked Daum Communications four years ago and fled to the Philippines to elude the police.
On April 8, a day after receiving the extortionist e-mail, which police say was probably written by Shin, Hyundai Capital transferred 100 million won to a bank account the hackers had specified.
Cho, his girlfriend and Huh withdrew a total of 36 million won from ATMs in four rounds at two banks in Seoul that day, according to police.
An accomplice named Yoo, 37, who was arrested April 15, is accused of driving the three to two different banks in Seoul on April 8.
After withdrawing the money, Huh returned to the Philippines, and Cho and his girlfriend flew to China.
The police questioned a woman in her 40s who opened up phone accounts for Huh in the past. She gave police Huh’s phone number.
Huh is accused of paying Shin to do the job and for withdrawing and transferring some of the money from Hyundai Capital to bank accounts in the Philippines via Internet banking.
Huh told police that he had transferred the money for someone else when reached in the Philippines. Police convinced Huh to return to Korea. Huh arrived at Incheon International Airport on Sunday morning and was taken to the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency.
The police said it is currently cooperating with Interpol to trace the whereabouts of Jeong, Cho and Shin.
In 2007, Shin allegedly stole resident registration numbers of 40,000 people by breaking into Daum’s customer service system and then blackmailed the company for 5 million won, police said.
Shin is also accused of being involved in three more hacking crimes since fleeing to the Philippines in 2007, including hacking into a server of a Korean telecommunications company.
By Yim Seung-hye [sharon@joongang.co.kr]
