Korean celebrities’ Samsung Cloud data hacked and held to ransom

guest · Jan 9, 2020

Korean celebrities’ Samsung Cloud data hacked and held to ransom
January 9, 2020
https://www.sammobile.com/news/korean-celebrities-samsung-cloud-hacked-ransom/

Numerous celebrities from South Korea have reportedly been blackmailed after they’ve gotten their Samsung Cloud personal data hacked, according to a recent report from the local media. More than 10 extorsion cases involving actors, K-pop stars and famous chefs have been confirmed by the authorities.

This security issue is not related to the exaggerated reports of Samsung sending your personal files to China (which it doesn’t), [...] Instead, the problem seems to be caused primarily by a lack of cautiousness from Samsung Cloud users who have reused their passwords and haven’t enabled two-factor authentication (2FA).
Samsung is following in Apple’s footsteps when it shouldn’t
Interestingly enough, these recent events look similar to the incident suffered by Apple and its userbase back in 2014, when private data from celebrities leaked on the web. That was before Apple made it easier for customers to enable 2FA.
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And although it’s easy to say that lack of prudence is at fault here, Samsung shares some blame as well because it makes 2FA authentication unnecessarily obscure.
Assuming that there’s no actual security loophole in Samsung’s cloud systems, the company will hopefully address this issue in a similar way to Apple and make it easier for users to enable 2FA.
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guest · Jan 12, 2020

Samsung Electronics insists its cloud is secure
January 13, 2020
http://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/news/article/Article.aspx?aid=3072548

Samsung Electronics insists that its cloud computing product is safe despite the blackmailing of a number of celebrities after their personal information was stolen.

Samsung Electronics argues that cloud hacking shouldn’t be much of a concern, as long as the proper steps are taken.

“Personal information saved on the Samsung cloud is secure in accordance with the Personal Information Protection Act if IDs and passwords aren’t exposed,” argued Samsung Electronics on Friday in a message to its Samsung Members community
Samsung believes that user IDs and passwords have been exposed to a third party and that that party logged in with a different phone and spread the information, including conversations exchanged on the Kakao Talk instant messenger.

“Cloud services can’t be perfectly safe from hacking,” said Prof. Kim Seung-joo from Korea University School of Cybersecurity.

“But considering the significance of smartphones in the sales of Apple and Samsung, they’re not likely to make the system vulnerable. Security specialists intensively confirm the security, and therefore, isn’t easy for hackers to hack the cloud system.”
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guest · Mar 6, 2020

Samsung Account update makes 2-factor authentication (2FA) mandatory
March 6, 2020
https://www.sammobile.com/news/samsung-account-update-2-factor-authentication-2fa-mandatory/

We’ve previously discussed how Samsung should consider improving the way it informs Samsung Account users of the fact that they can enable 2-factor authentication (2FA) for extra security. After numerous celebrities in South Korea have had their accounts hacked, and following the recent data leak incident involving Find My Mobile notifications, Samsung has now decided to make 2FA mandatory with its latest update to the Samsung Account application.

The way mandatory 2FA seems to work now is, new or existing Samsung Account owners who log in will be required to authenticate their accounts by entering their phone number to receive a code. This will happen regardless of whether your existing account has 2FA enabled or disabled, hence the word ‘mandatory.’

Until then, you can always refer to your guide on how to enable 2FA manually on your Samsung account to keep it secure even without this latest update.
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guest · Apr 10, 2020

Seoul prosecutors indict two individuals charged with hacking celebrities' phones, threatening, & requesting payments
April 10, 2020
https://www.allkpop.com/article/202...rities-phones-threatening-requesting-payments

According to media outlet reports on April 10, two individuals charged with crimes of hacking, threatening, and requesting payments in exchange for keeping private information from being leaked have been indicted with detainment by Seoul's Prosecution Office.

These two individuals Park (40) and Kim (31) were directly involved in hacking into numerous top celebrities' phones and internet accounts, obtaining private personal information and using the information to threaten the victims. Celebrities who fell victim to these hacking crimes include actors Joo Jin Mo and Ha Jung Woo.
Police have discovered that some of the threatened victims have already obliged in the hackers' monetary requests.
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guest · Apr 13, 2020

Ha Jung Woo Opens Up About His Experience Being Blackmailed By Celebrity Phone Hacker
April 13, 2020
https://www.soompi.com/article/1394...e-being-blackmailed-by-celebrity-phone-hacker

On April 13, Star News released an exclusive interview report about Ha Jung Woo’s experience being blackmailed by a celebrity hacker.

According to Ha Jung Woo, he first realized he had been hacked on December 2, 2019. The actor received text messages from the hacker that included messages and photos from Ha Jung Woo’s own phone.
An officer at the cyber investigation team warned Ha Jung Woo’s representative, “You may have come to us as a victim, but after we investigate the contents, you could become a suspect.”

The hacker, unaware that Ha Jung Woo had already notified the police, continued to threaten him.
Ha Jung Woo said, “I am just a victim of cell phone hacking. I handed over my cell phone and all my digital forensics information to the police. The police investigation was made possible because I notified the police.”
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