SK Communications (
Hangul
The Korean alphabet, known as Hangul, . Hangul may also be written as following South Korea's standard Romanization. ( ) in South Korea and Chosŏn'gŭl in North Korea, is the modern official writing system for the Korean language. The l ...
: SK커뮤니케이션즈 or ''에스케이커뮤니케이션즈'') is a South Korean
tech company that owns and operates popular web portal
Nate. It offers Internet access and telecommunications services for residences and businesses. SK Communications was founded in 1999 as Lycos Korea, a 50-50 venture of
Lycos of the United States and Mirae Corp. of South Korea. The firm was sold to
SK Telecom
SK Telecom Co., Ltd. ( or ) is a South Korean wireless telecommunications operator and former film distributor and is part of the SK Group, one of the country's largest chaebols. It leads the local market with 50.5 percent share as of 2008. ...
in 2002 and changed its name to SK Communications.
SK Telecom currently holds 85.9 percent of its shares.
Overview
SK Communications was created when parent SK Telecom merged the recently acquired Lycos Korea with its
cable Internet
In telecommunications, cable Internet access, shortened to cable Internet, is a form of broadband Internet access which uses the same infrastructure as a cable television. Like digital subscriber line and fiber to the premises services, cable Inte ...
unit NetsGo in 2002.
NetsGo is the developer of
Nate, a popular
web portal in the Korean market. Lycos Korea had trouble differentiating itself from competition. With no clear image to anchor its position in the Korean market,
Lycos declined in popularity and was soon incorporated into the Nate portal. The Lycos domain name was shut down at midnight on December 27, 2002, typing its address (www.lycos.co.kr) directed visitors to Nate's homepage.
In 2003, Nate acquired
Cyworld
Cyworld () is a South Korean social network service. Cyworld was originally part of SK communication, and became an independent company in 2014. Members cultivate relationships by forming ''Ilchon'' (, Hanja: ) or "friendships" with each other ...
, one of the leading
social networking service
A social networking service or SNS (sometimes called a social networking site) is an online platform which people use to build social networks or social relationships with other people who share similar personal or career content, interests, ac ...
s in South Korea.
To gain ground in the heatedly contested search market, SK Communications acquired rival
Empas for $82 million in October 2006. The deal also included acquiring Konan Technology, the exclusive provider of search technology to Empas. After its takeover, Empas continued to operate independently with complete autonomy over its management and workforce. However, in the aftermath of SK Communications' decision to incorporate Empas search services into its flagship Nate portal, the Empas
domain name was shut down in 2008 and the brand ceased to exist soon after.
To further integrate its services, SK took over professional blogging service
Egloos in the same year.
Acquisitions
* Cyworld
* Cymarket
* Egloos
* Empas
* Etoos
* SK i-media
2011 Data breach
In July 2011, SK Communications was hacked in one of the largest data breaches in South Korea's history. The attack, which is believed to have been conducted from Chinese IP addresses, had compromised SK Communication’s update server as its reached out to its supplier for a routine check up, according to the analysis, effectively turning the company’s security procedures into a vulnerability.
Hackers used vulnerabilities in the system to gain access to the personal data and IDs of 35 million Nate and CyWorld social network users. The attack currently stands as 10th on
DataLossDB’s list of largest all-time breaches with 35 million people affected.
In February 2013 a Seoul court has ruled that SK Communications should pay KRW 200,000 ($185.48) in damages to each ID theft victim in a class action lawsuit against SK Communications filed by 2,737 ID theft victims. On the ruling court said,
Internet
security" \n\n\nsecurity.txt is a proposed standard for websites' security information that is meant to allow security researchers to easily report security vulnerabilities. The standard prescribes a text file called \"security.txt\" in the well known locat ...
firms
ESTsoft and
Symantec Symantec may refer to:
*An American consumer software company now known as Gen Digital Inc.
*A brand of enterprise security software purchased by Broadcom Inc.
Broadcom Inc. is an American designer, developer, manufacturer and global supplier ...
who provided security software to SK Communications were also named defendants in the case, however the court found that they were not liable for damages.
See also
*
Cyworld
Cyworld () is a South Korean social network service. Cyworld was originally part of SK communication, and became an independent company in 2014. Members cultivate relationships by forming ''Ilchon'' (, Hanja: ) or "friendships" with each other ...
*
Daum
*
Lycos
*
Nate
References
External links
Official website (English){{SK Group
Communications
Communication (from la, communicare, meaning "to share" or "to be in relation with") is usually defined as the transmission of information. The term may also refer to the message communicated through such transmissions or the field of inquir ...
Internet service providers of South Korea
Companies based in Seoul
Companies established in 2002
Companies listed on KOSDAQ
2002 establishments in South Korea