South Korean television company JTBC discoveredthat KT Corporation (Korea Telecom), one of the largest telecommunication providers in the country, deliberately infected more than 600 thousand users with malware through their use of torrents.
The problem arose in May 2020, when Webhard, a Korean cloud service provider, was inundated with user complaints about unexplained errors. The company discovered that its Grid program, which relies on the BitTorrent file-sharing protocol, had been hacked. An anonymous Webhard spokesperson said: «There is a suspected hacker attack on our Grid service. This is an extremely malicious interference».
Upon further investigation, the company noted that the internet provider for all affected users was KT. A Webhard spokesperson said:
«Only CT clients have problems. Malware on the user’s computer creates strange folders or makes a file invisible. It completely shuts down the Webhard program itself. In some cases, it has even shut down the PC itself, which is why we reported it».
Police took appropriate action and discovered that the malware came from KT’s own data center south of Seoul. Authorities claim that KT may have violated South Korean laws, including the «Communications Secrecy Protection Act» and the «Information and Communications Networks Act». Police have identified the attackers and charged 13 people, including KT employees and subcontractors directly involved in the attack, but the investigation is ongoing.
KT stated that it directly installed the malware to its customers using Webhard’s Grid Service because it was a malicious program and «had no choice but to control it». The main problem here, however, was not Webhard’s use of the BitTorrent protocol, but the installation of malware on customers’ computers without consent.
Instead of blocking IP addresses or responding in some other acceptable way, KT harmed Grid Service customers. Most of them are individuals, not businesses or corporations, and they had no idea what was going on. The move resulted in the loss of files and damage to customers’ PCs. Ordinary users had to deal with computer problems that arose as a result of the company’s actions.
Webhard and KT have quarreled in the past over the latter’s use of its Grid Service. The former company says it saves tens of billions of Korean won by allowing its users to use peer-to-peer services to store and transmit data instead of storing it on its servers. On the other hand, the huge number of Grid Service users is putting a strain on KT’s network, and the two companies have gone to court to settle the dispute.
But in this case, the judiciary actually ruled in favor of KT. It says that Webhard does not pay for the use of KT’s network for its system and does not explain in detail to its users how the Grid Service works.
Source: Tom`s Hardware
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