A ransomware attack on Yes24, one of South Korea’s largest ticketing platforms and online book retailers, has caused significant disruptions in the country’s entertainment industry. The attack left the company’s website and services offline for four consecutive days, leading to event cancellations and postponements. The outage impacted presales and events for K-pop stars and actors, and producers of musicals had to ask audience members to present printed or emailed reservations. The company is working to restore services and has reported suspicious activity involving unauthorized access to customer data to South Korea’s data privacy agency.

South Korea’s largest ticketing and online book retailer, Yes24, suffered a ransomware attack that disrupted its website and mobile app for seven hours, halting ticket bookings, e-book access, and community forums. The outage occurred just hours before the scheduled general ticket sales for K-pop band DAY6’s 'The Decade' tour, causing panic among fans. This was the second ransomware attack in under two months, following a five-day outage in June that disrupted sales for major artists like Park Bo-gum and Enhypen. The June incident exposed weak security measures, including a lack of offsite backups, which delayed recovery. Despite pledging security overhauls—such as hiring external advisors and increasing cybersecurity budgets—Yes24 failed to prevent the recurrence, drawing criticism for poor leadership and limited transparency.The attack crippled high-value transactions, risked reputational damage due to failed high-profile events, and highlighted vulnerabilities in handling customer data and financial transactions. Yes24 has a history of security lapses, including fines for violating South Korea’s Personal Information Protection Act (2016, 2020) and a 2022 breach where a teenage hacker stole 1.43 million e-book decryption keys. The repeated targeting underscores the platform’s attractiveness to cybercriminals due to its large volumes of personal data and time-sensitive operations.