The Nationwide Intelligence Service (NIS) has detected vulnerabilities in textual content message encryption on smartphones utilizing KT’s community and notified each the telecom firm and the federal government, sources mentioned Thursday.
In a report submitted to Rep. Choi Min-hee, the NIS verified a tip that textual content message encryption on sure KT-powered smartphone fashions could possibly be compromised, in keeping with the sources.
The company confirmed that the flaw made end-to-end encryption faulty and probably prone to knowledge theft throughout transmission.
The NIS didn’t disclose additional particulars, together with which smartphone fashions had been affected or whether or not customers’ personal knowledge had been compromised.
Finish-to-end encryption is a safety communications methodology that ensures solely the sender and recipient can learn messages, as knowledge is encrypted on the sender’s system and solely decrypted on the recipient’s system.
This course of is designed to guard knowledge from being accessed by any third events, together with malicious actors.
Korean cell carriers use end-to-end encryption consistent with suggestions from the Korea Telecommunications Know-how Affiliation and the Worldwide Group for Standardization.
After the NIS notified KT and the Ministry of Science and ICT of its findings, a government-led panel started investigating potential decryption vulnerabilities throughout KT’s complete community.
The event follows revelations by the investigation panel final week that KT allegedly hid main malware infections and did not report safety breaches that led to a large-scale hacking and knowledge theft case final yr.
The corporate has additionally confronted criticism for its delayed response to a collection of unauthorized cell cost incidents.
