Category: Korean

PIN insecurity in Korea

In Korea, secret PIN is often used to protect credit cards, cash cards, and bank accounts.  Unfortunately, most people don't treat PIN as a personal secret and not only share it with others but routinely asks for it.

At Korean banks and credit card firms, application forms often have a field for the applicant to specify his or her desired PIN for the new account or card, exposing the PIN to bank branch employees as well as the data entry clerk.  In many recent credit card and cash card frauds in Korea, secred PINs were provided by bank employees.

At Korean merchants, point-of-sale devices allowing direct PIN entry by customers are often not available.  When a customer hands over their credit card to buy something, the clerk will not think twice about ask for its PIN.  So PIN is given verbally, allowing anyone standing near to hear.

This is a huge problem that only a combination of education and biometric can solve since even smartcards need PINs.

Card theft becoming a major issue in Korea

Organized thieves are creating fake cards using stolen information and using them to withdraw cash and make expensive purchases.  Apparently secret PIN is getting stolen too either because Korean cardholders often share it with store clerks, friends, and collegues.  It is also a common practice to lend your friends and family your credit card as a friendly gesture.  One can also overhear secret PINs being spoken out loud if you stand near a POS station at any department stores.  Result is 11 million bankcards having to be reissued by a Korean farmers co-op bank.  Kookmin Bank is also seeing evidence of large scale bankcard security compromise.  Looks an environment for massive switchover to smartcard is being created.

My Father’s Autobiography

My father's autobiography is finally out.  Unfortunately, the book is written in Korean, so only those of you with 'Korean software' installed upstair can 'run' it.  If you are, you can order the book at kyobobook.co.kr or seoulbook.co.kr.

Title of the book translates roughly to "Arrest Corrupt President First."  It talks about my father's encounters with former dictators, presidents, revolutions, coup d'etat, etc.  His account of a 'man-to-man' meeting with Park Chung Hee, the former dictator of Korea is particularly outrageous.

1936 Berlin Olympic Marathon Winner Son, Gi-Jung

Mr. Son is well known to all Koreans for winning the 1936 Berlin Olympic Marathon, the one where Joe Louis bombed Max Schmeling.  Mr. Son ran wearing the Japanese flag because Korea was occupied by Japan at that time.  For Koreans, the event was a great sign of hope that is still cherished.  Interestingly enough, Korean newspapers ran his photo with Japanese flag removed from his uniform.  I am sure that took some balls.  Mr. Son died Friday at 90 years old.

Weapons of Ass Destruction

Apparently, Reverse Cowgirl has similar sense of humor or taste as I do.  She featured box cover image of adult movie Weapons of Ass Destruction as a demonstration of her image blogging.  [Via Marc and Adam Curry]

I doubt North Korea is developing Weapons of Ass Destruction, but that's the kind of arms race I like.  Given South Korea's fast advancing plastic surgery technology, Koreans have a good chance of kicking ass in a pleasant way.  <g>

South Korean Nukes

Now that North Korea admited to having nukes, South Korea is likely to revive its own nuke and middle-range missile programs which were shelved long time ago under pressures from the US.  World peace and fairness at odds.  Exciting times we live in.

A few days ago, Dave posted a GIF of Kim Jong-Ill and Kim Dae-Joong dancing.   What I didn't realize was that it was animated GIF.  I had turned off web graphics animation off (an IE advanced options) more than a year ago out of irratation.  Anyway, I just wanted to confirm that they are indeed Kim Jong-Ill, Dictator of North Korea well known for being interested in making movies and getting bad haircuts, and Kim Dae-Joong, current President of South Korea who does an excellent imitation of an excited zombie.  [Scripting News]

W4Log: Who, What, When, Where Log

One rule I try to live by is don't bitch about what I can't fix.  I brought up the subject of corruption in Korea because I want to introduce a possible solution called W4Log, a permanent log of what key people (who) has said and done (what) in context of time (when) and place (where).  Such a log will require large number of volunteers to enter information and maintain integrity.

One key aspect of W4Log is genealogical links which can be associated with digital identity.  Net effect of W4Log is: what you do and say now will affect your descendents.  Given that biological propagation is a primary instinct, W4Log raises the penalty of misbehaving without building extra jails.  In certain aspect, Big Brother is nothing compared to W4Log.  Still it should affects only those who live in the public's eye and their descendents: top 5% of population and should be implementable in countries like Korea.

Even if W4Log is tough to swallow, I believe the general idea of fine-grained group memory is a useful one.  The media and the web plays that role to some degree, but the media's short-sighted focus and the web's chaotic nature and the level of noise brings the net effect far short of what can be achieved with fine-grained group memory.

Corruption in Korea

I was born in South Korea so I keep track of what goes on in Korea.  Frankly, I don't like much of what goes on in Korea.  Korean economy is much stronger than when I left back in 1976, but corruption still reins strong at all layers of Korean society.  A clear indication of this is that salary level in Korea is substantially below its spending level: people making $3000 a month spending $1000 for a night of entertainment.  A son of current Korean president is said to have spent $200,000 a month without a clear source income and hid boxes of money in his balcony.

Time is on your side

Some of the corrupted get caught, typically before and after the political rein changes hand.  When the eyes of law focuses on you in Korea, time is on your side because attention span of Korean people, politics, and law is short.  If you need some extra time to manuever your way out, you check yourself into a hospital to buy time.  If you need more time, you need to leave the country.  Your destination is likely to be US.  A former head of IRS in Korea, accused of threathening conglomerates into donating money to a presidential candidate, now lives in US.  The candidate he backed lost the election five years ago, but now the candidate is most likely to be the next Korean President.  Time is on your side if you are corrupted.  Korean People forgets.  Korean Law forgives.

Unforgivable, Unforgettable

Some crimes in Korea are unforgivable and unforgettable.  Every Korean boys and girls learn the name Lee Wan Yong from early on.  Lee Wan Yong betrayed the country to Japan in the 19th centry and his name lives on.  His descendents live in hiding even now and will never be able to leave the shadow of their famous ancestor, not even after a thousand years.