Lotte Card, one of South Korea's major credit card companies, disclosed that the personal information of two-point-97 million cardholders was exposed in a data breach last month.

Lotte Card President and CEO Cho Jwa-jin made the announcement at a press conference on Thursday while apologizing to cardholders and related agencies.

According to the company, personal information linked to online transactions was exposed, including resident registration numbers, virtual payment codes, internal identification numbers and easy payment service types.

Approximately 280-thousand members' card numbers and CVCs, linked to virtual cards that were used for "special transactions" in which users input payment data into a terminal rather than paying with a physical card, were also exposed.

The company chief pledged to fully compensate for damage from the digital attack as well as secondary damage upon verification.

Lotte Card, with around nine-point-six million cardholders, is the nation's No. 5 card company.