SK Telecom walloped with $97M fine after schoolkid security blunders let attackers run riot

South Korea's privacy regulator fined SK Telecom ₩134.5 billion after a breach exposed plaintext admin credentials and left more than 26 million USIM authentication keys and subscriber records unencrypted, enabling attackers to install malware, query Home Subscriber Server databases, and exfiltrate data for roughly 23 million users; the PIPC cited failures in access controls, monitoring, and cryptography and ordered encryption, tighter access controls, and real-time monitoring.