Facing Off Your INFORMATION

Lee Ji-eun reporter leejieun244@hotmail.com" target=_blank>leejieun244@hotmail.com

Interview

▲Min Jin-gui

The Chung-Ang Herald(CAH) decided to find out more about outflow of privacy information. CAH visited the Chief of National Intelligence Strategy Institute. He has work experience in the secret information service of the military. After receiving an MBA in Australia, he worked abroad in marketing for many companies and established an IT Company. Now he educates others about peace preservation, and information consulting to companies in Korea. He advises how to prevent industrial spying of information outflows within a company. Also he writes lots of essays, which relate the importance of information in his online blog.

CAH:Thank you for interviewing with CAH. What do you do?
Min: I manage an IT company, and consult about management of information. I mainly advise how to control document storage, and employees for security. Also, I inform companies of their weakness when they manage information and how to prevent the outflow of important information in advance.

CAH: When you write essays on your blog, you emphasis the importance of information. What is it?
Min:Information is money. It can be know-how that worth keeping. But if it outflows just once, then it is of no use, because it can be duplicate infinitely. In capitalism, the market forms flow in and out already. Information has to be out, but sometimes it is better that it is not. So, we must appreciate the importance of information.

CAH:Why does the outflow of information so important?
Min:In case of companies, everyone tries to compile information of competitors to survive. In case of an individual, the laws about outflow of privacy information are not clear. Moreover the measure of the extent of the laws are not large. So many people abuse it. Moreover, Korea’s ‘resident registration number’ is unique as compared with other countries. Korea uses ‘resident registration number’ by testimony which means some people buy or sell the numbers for money.

CAH: Can you give an example?
Min:For instance, when the portal site ‘Freechal’ went down, the staff sold off all the privacy information they had. They did to recover as much financial damage as they could. The information included private information of people who gamble or use a game site.
Then game companies like ‘Lineage’ buy this information or steal it, and go abroad changing their work place to China, Philippines and so on. Then the government can not punish the company because it is not within the country. Also foreigners who work for Korean companies can abuse other people’s privacy information. They do not have a Korean ID number, so if they join a game site at work, they can earn more money, and not be tracked. Customer information can be abused in oblique gaming, loans, insurance fraud, political funds such as those used on the elderly citizens and so on. There are a lot of possibilities of abuse.

CAH:The laws about outflow of resident registration has been revised to prevent problems. Can these laws help solve the problems? Are there other solutions?
Min:The government makes citizens use their ID number, when the people join anywhere, and the market takes advantage of it illegally. The government has suggested laws, but it can not solve the problems fundamentally. For example, someone abused your information to gamble at a web-site and is 10 years old, when investigated and discovered you are still not excused because you have no evidence. These are not temporary problems. However, I think the use of ID numbers have to abolish.

CAH:How can the people prevent this theft?
Min:First, you must not join sites that seemed like they can go bankrupt. Second, you have to chase your information and where it is used continuously. There is a site which can inspect where you have joined. But it is another opportunity for the outflow of your information or the list can be incomplete, if the companies do not open user’s information. Third, you have to protect yourself. If your information is abused, go litigate. Though it is very troublesome, you have to do it.

CAH:Please give some last advise to university students.
Min: Learning in university is important, but it is somewhat dull what happens in society. While you are absorbed in studies, you may miss the concepts of an ideal model that our society wants. It is the problem of understanding information. Look largely at the world.

Does the President play ‘Lineage’ on the internet? At first, it seemed so? What was he doing? Really, did he play games? The rumor started early this year, and it awakened people’s interest on the topic of internet privacy and security. This particular situation was the result of misappropriation accident of his resident registration number. The people, who were found misusing the President’s identity in relation to this accident are facing serious punishment. In addition, President Roh’s ID number has been identified as being abused on as many as 17 sites. Thus, it is a serious problem. There have been many attempts to solve privacy and security issues. One of these endeavors is the resident registration law, which was revised in June, and it will be uted in September. What are the revised laws?
There will be five clauses revised in the resident registration law. The first revised clause will be about the information of resident registration processed note and computerized entries. In the past, it was difficult to keep and control records, because they were processed twice over. The amended laws will change the documentation to be computerized, so that budget retrenches and work efficiency issues will be more efficient. The second clause to be change will state that only the head of the house, manager of the current generation, or oneself will report directly on their resident registration information. For those, who wish to complain about this limitation, the clause will also allow for changes made by a spouse entrusted by householder and/or a lineal relation. The third and fourth clauses will change in relation to complaints of the management process.
The most important change is the fifth clause that includes the situation of President Roh’s Lineage game accident.’ Before the law was revised, only the people, who abused registration numbers for their profit or property were punished. In President Roh’s case, the case was restrained, because the people who used President Roh’s ID number did not get any profits. They just used his ID. The problem was that the president’s prestige was damaged. The fifth clause was revised to prevent this type of problem.
Park Kyung-Tae, who works in the Ministry of Government Affairs and Home Affairs, explained the new law. For example, when University students become an adult, many choose to become an independence householder. However, when they report a moving-in notification, they must go directly and immediately to the Dong office. This can be inconvenient if there are multiple owners or family members within the new home. To prevent this problem, the laws changed so that registration can be committed to a spouse or the head of the house, and/or a close lineal family relation. In the past, many students would use another person’s IDs without feeling of guilt for a variety of reasons to avoid inconveniences. However, after the law changes, when someone uses another person’s ID number, they will be punished by law. The only exception will be if there is a lineal relationship. This new law will be active from September 25th.

Despite the laws change, most people are not interested in whether the laws have been revised or not. Moreover, the staff of the Dong and a ward offices, which will be in charge of enforcing law do not know about the change or even what the change is about. This is a serious problem.

Although people do not know the law or policy, the outflow of privacy information continues. For instance, it has become a matter of course to receive plenty of spam mail. For many, they cannot use regular e-mail services any more, and must change their addresses. At times e-mail account owners cannot gain access to their own accounts because someone else has used their ID number already, so they cannot enter. Then there are the tele-marketer calls at home, advertisements delivered by mobile phone. These situations happen frequently. There are cases, when elderly have given political funds involuntarily. At this point, changing a password is too late. Their private information has already out flowed and drifted somewhere on the internet.

To solve these problems The Ministry of Government Affairs and Home Affairs suggest six rules of thumb to protect your personal information. They are fundamental, but requires that each person confirms and manages their own information carefully that is they manage whether information is exposed to others or not. In this way, they can protect their privacy.
Additionally, there are sites where you join through use of your ID number. This can be convenient and good for legitimate sites but there are sites that have a high possibility of risk.
There are many issues related to the outflow of privacy information. These problems are not easy to solve. Everyone has problems with security and privacy of their personal information, but few give an ear to this. If you want to safe by danger of violations, you will have to consider about yourself.

Present Laws
Revised Laws

a. Process resident registration information by note and computer automation. a. Process resident registration information by computer automation only.
b. Only head of household can report about all sorts of resident registration information. b. Spouse entrusted by head of household and/or a lineal relation also can report.
c. When you get an attested copy to important document, it gives only yourself. c. Agent like spouse and lineal relation can also get documents.
d. Regulation of period about utilization does not exist. d. Regulation of period if prescribed correctly, same as provision C’s period.
e. Only people who abuse other people’s resident registration number for profit can punished.
e. People who abuse other people’s resident registration number for any reason can punish be punished.

TIPS : The sixth user regulations for protecting privacy information

① Only provide your privacy information when it is absolutely needed.
② When you offer privacy information, ask for confirmation of the organizations privacy information protection policy.
③ If you can choose not to disclose your information, do not disclose it.
④ Do not yours or other people’s privacy information indiscriminately on the Internet, such as on a blog or chat board.
⑤ Check whether your information (name, resident registration number, mobile phone number) is releases or not periodically through portal sites.
⑥In case of discovering that your information is exposed, immediately the information from the sites.