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Notorious Korean Hacker Arrested in Philippines

A hacker who became famous by hacking into the server of one of Korea’s top financial firms and extorting a payoff has been nabbed in the Philippines, according to JoongAng Ilbo.

The hacker surnamed Shin, 39, had become a famous international fugitive by hacking Hyundai Capital’s servers in early 2011, then extorting a 100 million won ($93,350) payment from the company by threatening to sell personal data about its 1.75 million customers.

Unfortunately for Shin, an accomplice named Heo who had wired the extortion money to the Philippines was nabbed by Korean police. Heo revealed Shin’s whereabouts, leading to his arrest in Batangas Province and repatriation on December 14.

Shin’s original ambition had been to become a pop singer but took up hacking as a hobby in 2000. He developed his hacking skills by chatting online with overseas hackers and studying computer books.

In 2005 Shin became skilled enough to hack into the server of Hangame, a popular online game portal. He siphoned off the player’s cyber money into his account, then sold it to other players at a discount. Shin also sold to others the software he used to hack into Hangame.

Those exploits got Shin arrested in February of 2005. He was convicted of hacking and served a two year prison sentence that ended in March 2007. He moved to the Philippines and made a living by charging illegal Internet gambling sites 1 to 2 million won ($933 to $1,866) for each online rival he took offline.

In 2010 Shin was offered 10 million won ($9,335) by a real estate agent surnamed Jeong to hack into Hyundai Capital’s server. Shin achieved the feat by locating the proxy server used by the server’s administrator to help get past the server’s defenses. That allowed him to plant viruses that let him access the personal data of 1.75 million Hyundai Capital customers, including their residential registration numbers and phone numbers.

Jeong then contacted Hyundai Capital and threatened to distribute its customer profiles unless it wired 500 million won ($468,000) into his bank account. The firm paid Jeong 100 million won ($93,350).

Media coverage of Shin’s exploits made him enough of a cult hero that some hackers even took to impersonating him. After he landed on Interpol’s wanted list Shin began laying low and took on a Japanese identity.

It was only after his accomplice Heo was arrested in Korea that Shin was located by the Philippine police in October in Batangas Province.

Prosecutors are currently building a case against Shin and Heo based on their 43,376 accesses of the Hyundai Capital server between February and April of last year.

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