korea

Personal information of 35 million South Koreans has been compromised as a result of a hacking attack on the company that runs the country's biggest social network and a major Web search engine, according to reports.

SK Communications, which operates the Cyworld social-networking site and the Nate portal site, said today that the hacking and exposure of names, phone numbers, e-mail addresses, resident registration numbers, and passwords, originated from malicious code that appeared to come from China, The Korea Herald reported.

"The company has confirmed that a leak of customers' information has taken place due to hacking on … Read more

Korean children, already fast becoming a robot-friendly lot, have a new companion in Kibot, a monkey-faced bot that can read fairy tales, sing songs, take pictures, and make video calls via a display embedded in its tummy.

Wireless operator KT Telecom started delivering the multitasking monkey today for 485,000 won ($447), plus wireless packages that can be purchased in 12- or 14-month installments.

"It's really cute," said my 9-year-old friend Stella, a co-worker's daughter who visited CNET's offices today. "I would get one if it was in blue." (No luck; for now, it only comes in pink and gray).

Kibot (short for "kid's robot") isn't just for kids, however. Parents can also remotely control the 8-inch-tall wheeled robot via mobile phone and, using Wi-Fi, monitor their children (a feature that made Stella a tad apprehensive).

"If I was sleeping, it wouldn't be that comfortable if I knew someone was watching me," she said. "It would be freaky."

Big brother (or father) concerns aside, Stella thinks the robot playmate--which is aimed at kids younger than she is, 3 to 7--would be a hoot to have around.

She was especially excited by the video chat function, which lets kids make calls via the 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera simply by touching an RFID card bearing the picture of a familiar face (Mom, Dad, Grandma, Grandpa, and so on) to the device. … Read more

Today's show title comes from the Sloppy Joe scene in "Billy Madison" and continues our weeklong tribute to Adam Sandler's comedic repertoire. We know how you kids like 'em shloppy!

Jeff uses the first bit of the episode to bemoan the Washington, D.C., legal system for its use of traffic-ticketing speed detectors in deserted 40 mph stretches of road.

Take a look at the video and let us know if you think Jeff's ticket is warranted, taking into consideration his admission of guilt on a live, recorded podcast that is definitely admissible in a court of law. Cool story bro!

Now onto the first of today's stories: game company THQ is organizing an anti-North Korean rally in San Francisco to protest the country's dictatorship and abhorrent human rights violations.

The walk from the Golden Gate Bridge to the Yerba Buena Gardens will feature speeches by economic experts, musicians, and the launching of 10,000 balloons.

But the other side of the story is that THQ is also throwing the rally to promote its upcoming shooter game called Homefront that puts the player in control of an American soldier challenging North Korean forces in a dystopian occupied United States. Keeping with last week's discussion of the violent realism in Call of Juarez, could this be another case of too real, too soon?… Read more

What do you get the mariner who has everything? You could do worse than the Ego Compact Semi Submarine.

Made by South Korea's Raonhaje, the Ego Compact is more of a glass-bottom boat than a sub, but it's still pretty nifty. Protected by 20mm-thick acrylic windows, the waterproof cabin hangs down from two pontoon-like floats and serves as a mobile observation room.

I was on a glass-bottom boat recently, and thought it was the perfect thing if you're too lazy to learn how to dive. But if seas are choppy and boat is pitching, waves can prevent … Read more

Police in South Korea reportedly say Google broke the country's law when its Street View service captured personal data from unsecure Wi-Fi networks.

The Korean Police Department will now send the case to prosecutors, who will decide whether to formally charge the search giant, says the Associated Press.

Google has been accused of capturing personal information from wireless networks as its Street View service took photos of South Korean neighborhoods between October 2009 and May 2010. The case kicked off last August when South Korean police raided the local offices of Google in an attempt to determine whether the … Read more

The Twitter and YouTube accounts held by the North Korean government were hijacked over the weekend and used to post messages critical of the regime and mocking North Korea leader Kim Jong-Il's heir apparent, Kim Jong-Un.

The official Twitter account for North Korea posted messages on Saturday, the day of Jong-Un's birthday, calling for an uprising and criticizing him for reportedly hosting lavish parties while North Koreans starve, Reuters reported.

Meanwhile, an animation appeared on the regime's YouTube channel the same day showing Jong-Un mowing down impoverished women and children in a sports car, the report said. … Read more

If you thought your English teacher was a robotic bore, spare a thought for kids in South Korea. They're being taught by real robots.

The city of Daegu introduced 29 robot teachers in 19 elementary schools as part of a large-scale project to robotize teaching. The ambitious effort envisioned robots in all 8,400 kindergartens in Korea by 2013.

Kids at Hakjung Elementary School seemed thrilled to interact with robots like the globular Engkey (above and in the vid below). It's about 3.2 feet tall and rolls around the classroom on wheels, asking questions in English and … Read more

South Korea has installed digital "bunkers" to prevent a repeat of the massive distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks that crippled parts of the country last year.

The nation was floored after huge streams of junk Internet data poured across its networks last year, targeting the infrastructure of government and businesses. "We were caught off-guard," Jinhyun Cho of the Korea Computer Emergency Response Team (KrCERT) told ZDNet Australia. "The whole country knows what a DDoS attack is."

A "bunker" in this case is a new IP address served to a business that is under … Read more