Tving apologizes for data breach and offers compensation to all affected users

Tving has apologized for a large-scale personal data breach and promised to rebuild its security system from the ground up.

At a briefing in Seoul on the 3rd, Tving CEO Choi Joo-hee said the company accepted the findings of a joint investigation by the Ministry of Science and ICT and private-sector experts. “We sincerely apologize for causing concern and anxiety to our customers through the breach,” she said. “We will responsibly implement measures to prevent a recurrence and work to restore customer trust.”

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We sincerely apologize for causing concern and anxiety to our customers through the breach.

The investigation found that Tving had failed to properly manage access keys for its development and operating environments. Personal information connected to 39.54 million accounts, including duplicate accounts, was exposed. Tving had previously reported a breach involving 19.53 million people to the Personal Information Protection Commission, but the commission will conduct additional checks to determine the number of users actually affected.

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We will responsibly implement measures to prevent a recurrence and work to restore customer trust.

Tving said it would increase information-security spending by about four times by 2030 compared with the previous five years. It will expand its security workforce to roughly three times its current size over five years and divide its security organization into product, cloud, companywide IT, and compliance functions. The investigation said Tving had only four dedicated security employees, excluding outsourced staff.

The company also plans to establish a zero-trust system that verifies authentication and access controls at every stage. It will tighten permissions under a least-privilege policy, after the investigation found that all developers had access to every project regardless of their duties. Tving will offer one year of insurance covering up to 3 million won per person for cyber financial fraud linked to hacking or phishing. All affected customers will also receive 5,000 won worth of Tving points and a choice of an additional discount coupon. Applications will be accepted from the 7th through the 30th, with benefits taking effect on the 6th of the following month.

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We will make information security the platform’s most important responsibility and competitive strength, and do our utmost to restore customer trust.