600,000 victims
Especially during the peak of file sharing over BitTorrent networks, many providers tried to control the resulting data traffic. For this purpose, among other things, traffic was specifically throttled. But this is innocuous compared to the tactics that South Korean network operator Korea Telecom (KT) is now accused of.
As a result of police investigations, the company was accused of introducing malware onto its customers' computers in order to disrupt their BitTorrent data traffic. About 600,000 users in South Korea are said to have been affected. It is said that evidence of the incident was confirmed during a raid on the company's branches.
Special malware section
Gyeonggi-do police, which conducted the raid and investigation, believe it was an organized hacker attack. A special team from KT reportedly injected malware to spy on subscribers and disrupt their data transfers.
“The team consists of a malware development department, a distribution and operations department, and an interception department that handles data sent and received by KT users in real time,” reads a report from South Korean broadcaster JBTC (via TorrentFreak).
Torrent-based cloud storage
The investigations go back four years. At that time, BitTorrent no longer played a crucial role in classic file sharing. So-called “webhard” protocol-based services are particularly prevalent in South Korea. Webhard stands for Web Hard Drive, so it's a special type of online storage.
Files are stored online in a BitTorrent-based network of many private computers rather than in a classic cloud data center. This is convenient and cost-effective, but guarantees much higher traffic for the network operator. Since favorable peering agreements do not always apply to data exchange, fixed BitTorrent data streams may become expensive for the service provider. This explains KT's interest in setting limits on traffic – but using malware that interferes with users' systems is illegal here.
- Network operator KT installed malware on customers' computers to disable BitTorrent
- About 600,000 users in South Korea were affected, according to police investigations
- Raids on KT branches confirmed evidence of malware being used
- Gyeonggi-do police suspect an organized hacking attack by the KT team
- The KT team consists of malware development, distribution and interception departments.
- The investigations go back four years, although the significance of the file sharing has diminished
- South Korea's “Webhard” services use BitTorrent technology, causing high traffic on KT
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