South Korean authorities find Tving data breach affected 40 Million

A joint South Korean government investigation has found that streaming platform Tving was hit by a major data breach, compromising sensitive information linked to nearly 40 million accounts.

 

Headquartered in Seoul, TVING is a leading South Korean streaming platform operated by Tving Corporation, a joint venture between CJ ENM, Naver, and JTBC. It offers live TV, Korean dramas, original series, films, documentaries, and sports, competing with Netflix and partnering with global players such as Apple TV+ and Paramount+.

 

The Ministry of Science and ICT (MSIT) recently released findings from a joint investigation into Tving’s data breach, conducted with the Korea Internet & Security Agency (KISA) and private-sector digital forensics and cloud security experts.

 

The investigation found that Tving’s database server experienced abnormal traffic spikes on May 29, signaling the onset of the breach. Authorities determined that the attacker penetrated several layers of the platform over the following three days. Tving’s cybersecurity team detected the intrusion on May 31, and the company notified the Korea Internet & Security Agency (KISA) of the incident on June 1.

 

Initial figures submitted by the South Korea’s data protection authority PIPC and MSIT to Democratic Party lawmaker Lee Jung-heon of the National Assembly’s Science, ICT, Broadcasting and Communications Committee, had estimated that around 19.53 million accounts were affected. 

 

However, the investigation found that hackers accessed 39.54 million accounts, including 22.06 million active, 17.37 million inactive or withdrawn, and 110,000 test accounts. Another 527,000 records from compensation coupons issued after KT’s previous data leak were exposed but excluded from the total.

 

The compromised data covered 70 categories, including IDs, names, birth dates, passwords, bank details, and encryption keys for phone numbers and emails. Investigators said the encrypted data could be decrypted, making the exposure effectively equivalent to an unencrypted leak. The Personal Information Protection Commission will assess the full extent separately. 

 

The breach also exposed 361 technical assets containing 30.35 GB of source code, potentially putting intellectual property and authentication information at risk.

 

Tving apologised for the large-scale security breach and announced that affected customers would receive identity protection insurance and ₩5,000 worth of Tving points as compensation.

 

In a statement shared with the media, Tving CEO Choi Ju-hee said, “We accept the investigation findings and will responsibly implement measures to prevent a recurrence and restore customer trust.”