(Photo= Yonhap news)

 

[Alpha Biz= Reporter Kim Minyoung] A shopping mall that had been fined 460 million KRW (approximately $460,000) for a data breach involving 120,000 individuals' personal information filed a lawsuit to contest the penalty but lost the case.

On the 10th, the legal community reported that the Seoul Administrative Court Division 2 (presided by Judge Go Eun-seol) ruled against SL Biotech in their lawsuit to annul the penalty. The court dismissed SL Biotech’s claims and ordered them to bear the litigation costs as well.

SL Biotech, a company that manufactures and sells health supplements, operates an online shopping mall called NutriCore. In September 2022, a hacker attack led to the leakage of personal information of 119,856 individuals.

Investigations revealed that SL Biotech had neglected its duty to secure its information processing system while operating the shopping mall. They failed to restrict access to the personal information processing system adequately, creating conditions where malicious code files could be easily executed. Additionally, SL Biotech did not report the data breach or notify the affected individuals in a timely manner.

The Personal Information Protection Commission imposed a fine of 460 million KRW on SL Biotech in March of last year. However, SL Biotech contested the penalty, claiming they had exercised a standard level of care expected in information technology and argued that the fine amount was excessively heavy and unreasonable.

The court did not accept SL Biotech's arguments.

In its ruling, the court stated, "The public interest in preventing the leakage of personal information is significantly more important than the financial disadvantage incurred by the information service provider that violated the regulations." Thus, the court ruled in favor of upholding the penalty against SL Biotech.

 

 

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