South Korea to require face scans to buy a SIM

"As explained in an announcement from South Korea's Ministry of Science and ICT, the nation has a problem with criminals registering mobile phone accounts and then using them to run scams such as voice phishing. The nation's new policy therefore extends existing customer authentication arrangements, which see buyers required to present verifiable identity documents at the point of sale, to add verification of a facial scan."

"South Korea's three main mobile carriers - SK Telecom, LG Uplus, and Korea Telecom - each provide an app called "PASS" that stores digital credentials. This new scheme will see facial biometric info stored in that app used to verify identity. The Ministry's announcement of the scheme says it's hoped the new verification requirement will make it much harder to register a mobile phone account using only stolen data."

"South Korea has a population of almost 52 million and has experienced two major data theft incidents this year that impacted more than half of all residents. E-tailer Coupang leaked over 30 million records , an incident that cost its CEO his job. SK Telecom, exposed data describing all of its 23 million customers. Korean authorities have already fined SK Telecom $100 million after learning of the carrier's woefully bad infosec practices, which included exposing plaintext credentials for its infrastructure on an internet-facing server."

South Korea will require local mobile carriers to verify the identity of new customers using facial-recognition scans to reduce scams such as voice phishing. The measure extends existing in-person identity-document checks by adding a facial scan verification step. The three major carriers' PASS apps will store facial biometric information and use it for authentication. The Ministry of Science and ICT expects the requirement to make it much harder to register mobile accounts using only stolen data. The country experienced major data breaches this year affecting millions, including a 30 million-record Coupang leak and an SK Telecom exposure of 23 million customers. SK Telecom has faced major fines and a large consumer-compensation order.

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