This week, the Seoul Metropolitan Police Company in South Korea introduced that its cybercrime unit has arrested an airline worker primarily based in Hong Kong accused of illegally accessing a whole bunch of flight particulars for Okay-pop artists. The person, who allegedly profited from sharing details about a number of stars — together with BTS — now faces a prolonged investigation.
In keeping with business sources, the worker would use the airline knowledge system at their place of employment to seek for journey info for Okay-pop stars. Promoting the data to stalkers (known as “sasaengs” in Korea) led to a revenue of 10 million received for the person, which equates to roughly $7,000 USD. Over the previous few years, the identical sources affirm that those that bought unlawful flight particulars had used them to board the identical flights as artists, change an artist’s seats or meal choices, or cancel a flight reservation solely.
HYBE, the label residence of acts together with BTS, TOMORROW X TOGETHER, SEVENTEEN, and LE SSERAFIM, responded with an unique remark, sharing, “HYBE will take a zero-tolerance method to the legal exercise of commoditizing and buying and selling artists’ private info, holding these accountable accountable to the fullest extent of the legislation, with none settlement or leniency.”
Prior to now, Okay-pop administration corporations have efficiently recognized and brought authorized motion towards those that had bought and benefited from this non-public knowledge. However now, the identification and arrest of a outstanding vendor has helped to additional disrupt the availability chain.
“The sale or buy of illegally obtained ticket info is a really severe matter that threatens the protection of artists, creates a way of insecurity, and may result in security incidents at airports and on airplanes,” the assertion from HYBE continued.
Moreover, HYBE not too long ago partnered with a cybercrime unit as a part of a particular effort to fight AI deepfakes, which have elevated in reputation throughout a number of sectors of the leisure business.