600,000 customers affected: South Korean ISP allegedly installed malware
A Korean ISP is said to have deliberately installed malware on customer computers in order to throttle the use of file-sharing services.
(Image: Balefire / Shutterstock.com)
A Korean Internet Service Provider (ISP) is said to have deliberately installed malware on customer computers. The malware, disguised as a network management solution, was intended to disrupt BitTorrent traffic.
As reported by the Korean newspaper JBTC, the Internet service provider KT, which formerly operated as "Korea Telecom", is said to have taken this measure due to the intensive download activities of its customers.
Malware against bandwidth hogs
File sharing is still very common in South Korea, but the technology used differs from that of other countries. Particularly popular there are paid BitTorrent-supported services called "Webhard", which is short for "Web Hard Drive", which offer dedicated web seeds to ensure the availability of files. The distribution technology is based on peer-to-peer networks, which can put a considerable strain on bandwidth when heavily utilized.
The manipulation came to light when many Webhard users received error messages. The errors occurred exclusively with KT customers. JBTC investigated these incidents and eventually determined that the Internet service provider KT had apparently installed malware on computers of Webhard services. According to the analyses, the malware was present in over 600,000 of the provider's customers.
Techspot reports that experts from the Gyeonggi Southern District Police Office have since searched KT's data center and headquarters. Computers and extensive documents were confiscated. KT and several partner companies are now accused of deliberately planting the malware to eavesdrop on subscribers and disrupt data transmissions.
A total of at least 13 people are said to have been involved in the actions, including KT employees and employees of former partner companies. One group was responsible for malware development. Another group was responsible for distributing the programs, operating them and evaluating the data supplied.
The measures are said to have taken place over a period of several years. A connection between KT customer accounts and system problems with Webhard applications was first noticed four years ago. KT claims that it only intended to manage the data traffic in its network to ensure smooth operation.
(nie)
