{
  "id": 5032258,
  "title": "[EXPLAINER] How SKT data breach pushed inflation up by 0.6 percentage point",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/02/explainer-how-skt-data-breach-pushed-inflation-up-by-0-6-percentage-5032258",
  "topic": "finance",
  "section": "Finance & Markets",
  "published": "2026-09-02T06:42:03.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "The Korea Times",
    "slug": "the-korea-times-koreatimes",
    "url": "https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/economy/others/20260902/explainer-how-skt-data-breach-pushed-inflation-up-by-06-percentage-point"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Last year's data breach at SK Telecom led to a 0.6 percentage point increase in consumer inflation, according to recent government data. The incident caused a 50 percent reduction in mobile phone bills for over 20 million subscribers, creating a base effect that influenced August's inflation rate. The Ministry of Data and Statistics reported that the consumer price index stood at 120.05 in August, marking a 3.1 percent increase from the previous year. Inflation had been on the rise, reaching 3.2 percent in June before easing to 2.8 percent in July. However, the August surge was primarily due to the diminishing impact of SK Telecom's mobile bill discounts, which initially affected roughly 25 million customers. While the latest data may initially appear to indicate increased inflationary pressures, the reality is that the August rise was largely a result of the fading effect of the large-scale bill cuts introduced by the carrier in the wake of the data breach.",
  "summary": "The fallout from SK Telecom's data breach last year has resurfaced in consumer inflation data a year later. In an unexpected twist, a 50 percent cut in mobile phone bills for more than 20 million subscribers at the time created a base effect that pushed up last month’s consumer inflation rate by nearly 0.6 percentage point, government data showed Wednesday. According to the Ministry of Data and…",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 2,
    "also_reported_by": [
      {
        "outlet": "The Korea Times",
        "title": "How SKT data breach pushed inflation up by 0.6 percentage point",
        "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/02/how-skt-data-breach-pushed-inflation-up-by-0-6-percentage-point",
        "published": "2026-09-02T05:52:02.000Z"
      }
    ]
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}