KT, the country’s biggest fixed-line service provider, announced Friday a package of measures designed to better protect the personal data of its consumers following its recent massive data leak incident.

Pyo Hyun-myung, president of the mobile business unit at KT, said it will introduce a new system that enables its customers to make confirm the history of their personal information inquiries by the year end.

He also said that it will change its current sales operation system to one that blocks hacking activities by September 2013 and only allow computers that are equipped with the virtual desktop infrastructure solution to have access to the sales systems.

The firm will further monitor the private information inquiry procedures of its sales outlets and launch a next-generation monitoring system by the end of this year.

It will also recruit global security experts and set up a new organization that is capable of digital forensic analysis, company officials said.

“We apologize for causing concerns among our consumers and the public,” Pyo said at a press conference.

“We apologize again for releasing the measures 10 days after the unveiling of the incident. It took us some time to find out what the damage was to our customers and devise the security upgrade scheme.”

Stating that it was impossible to block the “well-planned and long-term hacking,” he said that there will be no further harm done to its subscribers as the police collected all personal data taken by the hackers.

“It’s a really painful event for our company but we all came to a conclusion that a practical set of measures needed to be unveiled,” Pyo said.

However, the company is most likely to meet protests by some consumers who are demanding compensation for their involvement in the data leak as it announced there is no immediate compensation planned at this point.

Of the 8.7 million KT subscribers impacted by the hacking, 30,000 people said they will file a class action lawsuit against the nation’s second-largest mobile carrier.

“It’s not important that the company had immediately reported the case to the police as soon as it found out, but it’s the fact that the personal data was inappropriately managed that matters,” said a civic group official.

“We’re aware that some of our customers are getting ready to file a class action suit against us through a law firm and we will respect and accept the outcome of the ruling when it is released,” Pyo said.

By Cho Ji-hyun (sharon@heraldcorp.com)