INFORMATION LEAKAGE

[Anchor Lead]

Korea's top portal, Naver, has accidentally sent out an email containing the personal information of thousands of users. It contained users' names, ID numbers and even home addresses. Further fueling the controversy is the fact that Naver mistakenly deleted users' personal email messages while handling the accident.

[Pkg]

On April 30, a blogger surnamed Park received an email from Naver. The attached file contained the names and home addresses of hundreds of people. Naver had accidentally sent out blog advertisement service users' tax receipts.

[Soundbite] (VICTIM OF NAVER PERSONAL INFORMATION LEAK) : "When I saw hundreds of pages of personal information, I thought Naver had been hacked or impersonated."

So far, more than two thousand people have been confirmed to have received the email. The number of people whose personal information has been leaked in the process is estimated to be even larger. But the way Naver has been handling the situation is quite frustrating.

[Soundbite] HO MI-SOOK(VICTIM) : "My primary concern is additional damage. My information could be used by malicious people for many illegal purposes."

While trying to rectify the situation, Naver also accidentally deleted the already read messages in the users' personal emails.

[Soundbite] PROF. KIM YOUNG-JONG(SOONGSIL UNIVERSITY) : "It is unacceptable for administrators to have access to users' personal messages in any way."

Naver explained the glitch by saying that it used the delete code without reading the contents of the deleted messages. The portal also vowed to overhaul the way it sends out data containing personal information.

[Soundbite] KIM JIN-KYU(NAVER) : "We are looking into ways to improve the technical aspect, such as our Web downloading method, to prevent similar problems in the future. We are also considering compensation for the victims."

The Korea Communications Commission has launched an investigation into the accident and Naver's response.