• South Korea’s SK Telecom replaced its CEO after a major cybersecurity incident
• Its rival, KT Corp, was also found to have suffered a data breach
• Now KT Corp’s CEO is stepping down and the process to find a new CEO is underway

South Korea’s telco cybersecurity torment has claimed another CEO victim: Only days after SK Telecom appointed a new CEO in the wake of its disastrous cyber breach that is now having a major impact on its financials, one of its main domestic rivals KT Corp. has announced it is searching for a new CEO following the impact of its own cybersecurity incident. 

In September, KT admitted hackers were likely to have stolen subscriber information after managing to connect illegal mini base stations to the operator’s network, which resulted in a spate of fraudulent micropayments, and subsequently admitted its internal servers have also been compromised on a number of occasions – KT’s data breach woes get worse. 

Now KT has announced it is to offer free SIM card replacements to all of its 16 million mobile subscribers (including those connected to the network via mobile virtual network operators) and that CEO Kim Young-seop (pictured above) “will take responsibility” and not seek another term as head honcho when his current one ends in March next year, reports Korea JoongAng Daily. Kim stated to a parliamentary meeting last month, “As CEO, I must take full responsibility for the personal data leaks and unauthorised payments resulting from this incident.”

In this announcement (in Korean), KT noted its director candidate recommendation committee has officially launched the process for selecting the next CEO, “beginning with discussions on how to form a pool of candidates. The committee plans to finalise the selection of a single candidate within the year.” 

Candidates will be sourced via recommendations from external professional organisations, open recruitment (submissions need to be in by 16 November), recommendations from shareholders that have held at least 0.5% of the company’s total shares for at least six months and internal candidates. “We will contribute to KT’s sustainable growth and enhanced shareholder value through a fair and transparent process,” noted KT. 

- Ray Le Maistre, Editorial Director, TelecomTV