South Korea tightens online transaction security

South Korea is tightening its online and mobile payment systems, as part of efforts to prevent further security breaches.

"We will reinforce the personal authentication process for online and mobile money transactions, particularly for Web sites that are more vulnerable to fraud payments,” said the Financial Services Commission, in a report Tuesday by JoongAng Daily.

New measures will include stricter requirements over payment authentication for online game sites and mobile payment services, a financial application store service to prevent mobile device users from downloading phishing apps and tightening security when issuing accredited certificates, according to the news daily.
The move comes after financial details from about 230 credit card users of BC card and KB Kookmin Card were hacked over five days last November, noted the report. The stolen information was used for online game payments and resulted in about 170 million won (US$149,490) in losses, it said. JoongAng Daily noted investigations have revealed the information was acquired by hacking into the Internet Secure Payment system of users' personal computers.