Anchor: Lotte Card, a major credit card company in South Korea, says the personal information of two-point-97 million cardholders was exposed in a data breach last month, including more than 200-thousand card numbers. Lotte Card's chief and other executives made the announcement at a press conference on Thursday while apologizing to cardholders.
Kim Bum-soo has more. 

Report: Lotte Card executives bowed their heads as part of a public apology for failing to prevent the exposure of nearly three million cardholders' personal information. 

[Sound bite: Lotte Card President and CEO Cho Jwa-jin (Korean-English)]
"As the CEO of our company, I stand here with a profound sense of responsibility for the significant anxiety and concern caused to our customers by the recent cyberattack on our company. I sincerely apologize to our loyal Lotte Card customers and the relevant agencies for any inconvenience this may have caused."

Lotte Card CEO Cho Jwa-jin and other board members held a news conference Thursday confirming that the personal information of some two-point-97 million customers had been exposed in the recent breach.

[Sound bite: Lotte Card President and CEO Cho Jwa-jin (Korean-English)]
"First, we want to emphasize that the data leak was limited to the online payment server and had nothing to do with offline payments. The leaked information was generated and collected during online payments made through the server between July 22nd and August 27th, including CI, virtual payment codes, internal identification numbers and types of simple payment services."

Among other sensitive personal information, the card numbers, CVCs and expiration dates linked to approximately 280-thousand members' virtual cards were also exposed.

The credit card company chief pledged to fully compensate for damage from the digital attack.

With some nine-point-six million members, Lotte Card is the nation's fifth-largest credit card company.

Lotte announced the data breach earlier this month, prompting financial watchdogs to assess the scope of the damage.

The financial services commission held an emergency meeting at its headquarters on Thursday, where it decided to launch a thorough investigation into the incident.

The government's top financial regulator said Lotte will face severe consequences if any lax management of personal information is found. 
Kim Bum-soo, KBS World Radio News.