Seoul, Nov 6 (NationPress) South Korea's financial regulatory authority has imposed a hefty fine amounting to 35.2 billion won ($24.3 million) on Dunamu, the entity behind the nation's leading cryptocurrency exchange, Upbit, for breaching customer identification regulations.

The Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), operating under the Financial Services Commission, stated that Dunamu failed to fulfill its duties to verify user identities in approximately 5.3 million instances. The company also neglected to report 15 suspicious transactions, as reported by Yonhap news agency.

Notably, Dunamu accepted photocopies or re-photographed images of user identification, which did not allow for full verification of identities, rather than insisting on original documents.

Additionally, there were numerous cases where the address sections of customer identification documents were either left blank or contained incorrect or irrelevant information, according to the FIU.

Moreover, Dunamu failed to restrict transactions for users whose verification processes were incomplete in 3.3 million instances.

Dunamu stated, "We have implemented protective measures for investors and will strive to prevent similar violations in the future."

The FIU has provided Dunamu with a period of 10 days to present its feedback before the fine is finalized.

Earlier today, KT Corp., South Korea's second-largest telecommunications provider, was discovered to have hidden significant malware infections and failed to report the security breaches that resulted in a recent hacking and data theft incident, according to a government-led inquiry.

The joint investigation team, which is scrutinizing KT's recent cyberattack linked to illegal micro base stations, revealed that the company became aware between March and July 2024 that 43 of its servers were compromised by BPFDoor malware and other malicious software.

Despite being aware of these infections, which compromised customer data, the company did not inform the authorities and opted to address the issue internally, as per the investigation team.

BPFDoor malware allows remote attackers to circumvent firewalls and maintain continuous access to compromised systems. It was also implicated in a separate hacking incident involving industry leader SK Telecom Co., reported earlier this year.