When the Dam Breaks
It's already been a full week since Sehan Telecom got hacked. But of course, not a single news article had appeared about it.
"Hmm... when's it going to break?"
Honestly, if I didn't intervene at all, they'd probably sit on it for months before it finally exploded.
They've finished their internal assessment of the hacking damage. They're so shocked they can't even figure out how to respond.
Nearly thirty million people's data got leaked. Even the victims themselves must be dumbfounded.
"But why won't they announce it? Thirty million people are about to get screwed — shouldn't they have a legal obligation to inform them?"
Well, the biggest factor is probably fear of the fallout once this goes public. It's not just ordinary citizens — executives at major corporations and politicians all got cleaned out too...
Still. No matter how you look at it, wrong is wrong.
"What kind of penalty would they face if this gets revealed?"
In theory, a fine of around 200 billion won plus compensation from class-action lawsuits would total over 3 trillion won in damages. But there's a 100% chance Sehan Telecom will dispute the fine as excessive and file an administrative lawsuit, and the compensation issue will drag into a years-long legal battle. In the end, it'll just turn into a mudslinging match.
Those bastards got hacked and didn't even warn anyone — I'd bet my entire net worth that there's zero chance they'll meekly bow their heads and pay up when fines and lawsuits come knocking.
"For now... let's set the legal side aside for a bit. We need to make the hacking victims public first."
We won't need to do that ourselves. Since negotiations haven't made much progress, the hackers are about to release the data on their own.
"These fuckers can't even secure their systems properly and they can't negotiate either?"
Tears blurred my vision at the fact that these were the clowns running Korea's largest telecom company.
The next day, even though it was the weekend, an exclusive report broke early in the morning.
They must have been in such a rush that they uploaded the article with just a headline and a photo — no actual content written yet.
"So it's not everything."
Effectively, the hackers had made off with the entire customer database the telecom held, but they'd only released phone numbers and names — probably to leave room for further negotiations.
That's still quite sensitive information. You've just become numb to it because so much of your own data has been compromised.
"If this is all that got leaked in Korea, we're getting off easy."
I let out a heavy sigh even as I answered Athena.
"What's Sehan's response?"
The moment the article broke, they issued an emergency press statement. Shall I show it to you?
I felt like I'd keel over from rage just reading it, but I still had to see it.
"...Put it up."
We at Sehan Telecom acknowledge that an illegal hacking attempt has occurred from an external source and are currently cooperating with relevant authorities to verify the facts. The information circulated on the Dark Web is believed to be a fragment of old, segmented data — not our full database. Our customers' core information remains safely protected under rigorous security measures. We deeply apologize for causing concern.
"This apology statement looks awfully familiar."
It was the textbook statement every company puts out when their customer data gets leaked.
"They'll slap that up there and try to somehow clean this up before Monday, right?"
Exactly. In fact, they're already busy setting up a cryptocurrency wallet right now.
"Hmm... I'm genuinely curious — if the hackers get paid, will they actually delete the data?"
Absolutely not. The trend these days is double extortion — take the money from the company, then flip the data to China or Russia afterward.
"So in the end, Sehan's just the one getting fucked?"
Well, they were already fucked, but this would upgrade them to supremely fucked.
Situation just updated. Sehan transferred 500 billion won worth of cryptocurrency to the hackers, and the hackers dumped the entire database the moment they received it.
"Fucking amazing. Seriously."
If it was going to leak anyway, they should've at least not paid. The image of them forking over the money AND getting double-crossed made me laugh bitterly.
Around the same time, in Sehan's top-floor conference room.
"Hoo..."
The chairman of Sehan tugged roughly at his sweat-soaked tie and slumped into a leather sofa.
"Is the transfer done?"
"Yes, Chairman. We've completed the transfer of 500 billion won worth of cryptocurrency to the wallet the hackers specified. It's untraceable."
"You fucking bastards..."
The chairman's hand trembled as he hurled the water bottle he'd been holding.
Five hundred billion won — gone, vanished into thin air. But still, relief came first.
What if all thirty million people's personal information had been released to the world as-is?
Astronomical fines. Trillions of won in class-action lawsuits. Politicians from both ruling and opposition parties would tear them apart.
"Still, this is cheap at the price. We handled it with company money, so... PR team — block every article that goes up! Security team — purge all server logs over the weekend. As far as the world knows, only a 'fraction of data' was leaked, exactly like our initial statement says. Understood?"
"Yes, Chairman!"
The executives bowed their heads in unison — just as the conference room door slammed open and a man rushed in, his face ashen.
"Ch-Chairman! This is a disaster!"
"What now? We paid them, didn't we? What the hell happened!"
"Th-the hackers... they dumped all thirty million people's data on the Dark Web. Right now, anyone in the world can download it..."
The chairman, who had just breathed a sigh of relief thinking the crisis was over, turned beet red and jabbed a finger at the air as he screamed.
"Those fucking sons of bitches... We paid them and they stab us in the back? That's not what we agreed on!"
As the chairman raged, the man continued in a half-sobbing voice.
"And that's not all... They uploaded the entire record of our negotiations with them over the past week... They even posted proof of the wire transfer we just made — mocking us the whole time..."
"Wha... what?"
A dumbfounded sound leaked from the chairman's mouth.
The realization hit the chairman and the executives like a sledgehammer — they hadn't bought silence with 500 billion won. They'd bought evidence of their own mass-scale fraud against the nation. The blood drained from their faces.
"Sehan's one thing, but I need to hunt those hackers down and kill them too."
I wanted to destroy Sehan even more, but I couldn't just let the hackers off either.
They're operating out of Russia, so taking immediate physical action is a bit difficult.
If they were in a nearby country, I could've sent the team to bury them, connected their hard drives and USBs, and wiped the leaked data. But professionals like them have physical backups too — it's impossible to stop completely.
"But that's not your fault, is it?"
Athena had just been swimming through the vast ocean of the internet, detected a massive chunk of information, and alerted me. It was already too late — there was nothing she could've done.
It's just unfortunate. Since none of your personal information or your inner circle's was leaked, even if I had known earlier, I wouldn't have stopped it.
Athena cared only about my happiness — not humanity's. She couldn't give a damn if other people got robbed blind.
"First, we deal with Sehan. Then we retaliate against those fuckers too."
I can't do anything physical to them right now, but if their cold wallet gets connected, I can drain the coins from it.
"That's one good piece of news at least. Wait and watch — when the chance comes, take everything."
As I was thinking through the general response to the hackers, a question popped into my head.
"But why is Sehan so quiet? By now they should be in full-blown panic mode."
It was about time for them to catch hell, but after getting double-crossed, they seemed to have lost their minds entirely — no response at all.
They are responding. Just not the way you're expecting.
"Oh? What are they doing?"
A very classic response. They just booked a VIP ward at Korea University Hospital.
"The hospital? Why? Did someone grab their neck, collapse, and crack their skull?"
No. He's walking around perfectly fine on two feet. But starting Monday morning, knives are going to fly at him from every direction. He's getting the hospital gown and wheelchair ready to dodge it all.
I had a feeling that might be it, but it was exactly what I expected.
"So they've just given up on media response, huh."
Many journalists were Sehan customers themselves. When reporters saw their own precious personal info floating around like public domain content, they foamed at the mouth and tore into Sehan.
[Breaking] Paid 500 Billion, Stabbed in the Back Anyway… Sehan Telecom Mocked by Hackers, All 30 Million Customers' Data Exposed — 'Shock'
[Roundup] Claimed 'Partial Leak,' but All 30 Million Got Drained… Sehan's Mass-Deception of the Nation Exposed, Astronomical Cover-Up Attempt Uncovered
[Breaking] Even Prominent Politicians and Corporate Executives' Personal Data Entirely Leaked
[Exclusive] Fines in the Hundreds of Billions, Damages in the Trillions…? Top Telecom Sehan Sold Out 30 Million Citizens
This was the first time I'd ever smiled so brightly reading news headlines.
"Damn, everyone's really out for blood. The headlines..."
Seeing them savage their own advertisers like that, they must've been seriously pissed off.
Especially when even the business-oriented economic dailies — usually very corporate-friendly — were flooding with critical articles, the fire was blazing.
"Any reported damage yet?"
The hackers had basically dumped everything they had with a 'fuck you' attitude, so it wouldn't be surprising if some real damage had already occurred.
The data hasn't been out long enough for any catastrophic large-scale attacks or damages to be recorded yet. However, nationwide, spam texts including voice phishing attempts have skyrocketed by roughly 3,000% compared to normal levels. Most significantly, high-ranking figures in politics and business are being targeted intensively.
Whether politicians or tycoons got hit wasn't really my problem, but it stung a bit seeing innocent citizens getting victimized.
"For now... do something to prevent ordinary people from suffering too badly. Normally that'd be Sehan's job, but since those fuckers prioritized getting their chairman into a hospital bed, I can't expect anything from them."
In the grand picture I was painting, some collateral damage to the public was inevitable — but I didn't want it to get severe.
The VIPs' data would be Sehan's top priority anyway, so I didn't need to bother intervening there.
Understood. I'll make sure no serious damage occurs.
"And... it's about time we started moving too, right? Sehan Telecom needs to completely disappear from the market. The existing collusion structure has to be broken."
Sehan was a problem, but the other two telecoms weren't much different.
Korean telecom companies — the kind that would even hack their own customers — and thankfully, Sehan had just committed suicide, making things much easier for me while I was waiting for an opportunity.
Do you want Sehan to disappear completely?
"Yeah. Their group's overall size is big enough that losing one telecom affiliate won't kill them anyway. And it'll serve as a clear warning to the other two carriers."
Running a business like garbage while clinging to 'too big to fail' is practically a corporate tradition. But when you scream 'come and get me,' I'm going to actually take your lunch.
Then I'll design things so that Sehan Telecom vanishes into history. Additionally, I'll prepare for Cheonmun Group to enter the mobile carrier market and absorb all of Sehan's infrastructure after their bankruptcy.
Sorry to CEO Han Jeong-woo, but since he joined the team, he'd have to suffer on my behalf.