On an MBC special which aired on November 8th, the show ran an investigation on the power of netizens.Under the permission of gagwoman Lee Guk Ju, five students from a cyber-security school were given her name, her age, and her internet ID. With just these three pieces of information, what the students managed to find was shocking. Within 15 minutes, the students were able to find her internet password, and within an hour, her friends’ phone numbers, her education history, her home address, photos from her high school career, and email content sent to and from her friends.
All of this was done without the use of any illegal hacking programs, and the feat was attributed to the power of a new internet phenomenon, and what is now nicknamed the NCSI (Netizen Crime Scene Investigation).South Korea is a unique case, at least in the sense that in other countries, especially America, the personal lives and other breaking news of celebrities are found through professional paparazzis and news agencies. However, South Korea, being one of the strongest IT nations in the world, puts netizens at the front of the investigations.
Netizens have made headlines on more than one occasion lately, and mostly for their ultra-fast pace in finding information. They are able to solve cases before police investigations even know where to start, making the confessions made by celebrities seem like child’s play.
A representative of a security enterprise stated, “As long as you’re skilled in making searches, finding personal information on a specific person isn’t that hard. People use their name, age, gender, and phone number without any suspicion online. All you need is one of those pieces, and it’s easy to gather all of the scattered data.”
Another entertainment agency representative added, “Accounts also help greatly, as in the case of SHINee’s Jonghyun and Shin Se Kyung. Their relationship was first found through a netizen account of their date before it was even ever reported to the public.”
Some of the representative cases of the netizens include:
Date: 2010 October 27Subject: The face of actor Ryu Shi Won’s wife revealed.
Date: 2010 October 27
Subject: Name of Jang Mi In Ae’s former boyfriend revealed.
Date: 2010 October 18
Subject: Identity of a teacher that had a sexual relationship with her student revealed.
Date: 2010 October 11
Subject: Internet post made by MC Mong regarding his draft dodging uncovered.
Date: 2010 October 5
Subject: Identity of ‘whatbecomes’ revealed.
Date: 2010 September 16
Subject: Identity/Truth of Mnet’s “Korean Paris Hilton” Kim Kyeong Ah revealed.
Date: 2010 September 6
Subject: Name of female celebrity with a bad attitude during charity work revealed.
Date: 2010 May 18
Subject: Identity of Kyunghee University student that abused her parents revealed.
Date: 2010 May 14
Subject: Shindong’s album proposal decoded.
Date: 2005 June 15
Subject: Identity of woman that let her dog poo in subway revealed.
If so, what do industry representatives think of such power?
An entertainment agency representative that requested to remain anonymous complimented the NCSI, stating, “I think they have amazing skills. Being able to find such information and identifying initialed/anonymous names without the use of hacking and other illegal tools is worth at least a round of applause.”
On the other hand, agencies that did not want their celebrity names revealed, coldly stated, “I think of them as people with nothing to do. I’m unable to understand why they do it, and why they feel the need to bring up old issues.”
While the Shindong case made the public laugh with amusement, other issues still remain, such as the question of how far is too far.
Jung Deok Hyun, a mass culture critic, commented, “The NCSI was considered a fun past time at first, but it has gotten stronger over the years. With social networking services such as Twitter, netizens are able to converse in real time and exchange pictures of various information a lot faster than they could before. Some level of security must be implemented.”
source: allkpop