SKT issues another public apology

[Anchor]

A long line has formed outside of this SKT branch.

People are rushing to change their SIM cards after hearing the news that users' personal information has been leaked.

However, many places have run out of replacement SIM cards, and in the midst of this chaos there are rising attempts of fraud, leading to SKT issuing an emergency statement once again.

Kang Pu-ryun reports.

[Report]

The free SIM card replacement announced by SKT will start tomorrow (Apr. 28) at 10 AM.

However, users eager to change their SIM cards have flocked to some stores, and already, some have run out of SIM cards. There has also been a surge in users subscribing to services that prevent illegal identity theft, which caused difficulties in accessing the SKT application.

As this confusion continues, SKT issued another emergency statement today (Apr. 27), just two days after a public apology.

They stated, "We will take 100% responsibility if any damage occurs due to this incident," and reiterated their appeal for users to sign up for the 'SIM Protection Service,' which is said to have the same effect as changing the SIM card.

They also mentioned that they have currently secured 1 million SIM cards and plan to secure an additional 5 million by the end of next month.

[SKT Official/Voice Altered: "We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience and concern caused by the cyber breach incident. We will thoroughly protect our customers' valuable information from being leaked externally through the SIM Protection Service and SIM card replacement."]

The government has announced that it will form a joint public-private investigation team to thoroughly investigate the cause and transparently disclose the results.

They also warned that searching for 'free SIM card replacement' on some internet sites may lead to scamming and gambling sites.

[Ministry of Science and ICT Official/Voice Altered: "No reports have come in yet, but we detected it in our monitoring system in advance. This is a warning that smishing attacks could occur."]

SKT has reiterated that no cases of damage have been reported so far, but consumer anxiety remains high.

This is KBS News, Kang Pu-ryun.