SoylentNews

Michael Kitchen writes at Marketwatch that when companies in the US are hacked for customer information they often seem to react to such thefts with little more than a sigh and a shrug - if they even report it at all. But in South Korea, they don't mess around with ID theft. Korea's financial-services regulator announced Sunday that three firms which suffered the theft of consumers' data last year would be barred from issuing any new credit cards or extending any loans for three months. In addition the executives at the companies involved showed their contrition by going before television cameras and making deep bows and personal apologies. Some executives reportedly resigned over the incident, even though the alleged ID thieves were caught and arrested. The South Korean Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) said the companies had "neglected their legal duties of preventing any leakage of customer information."