Chinese authorities have arrested three accomplices involved in the January hacker attack on popular Korean auction site “Auction,” the Korean subsidiary of eBay.

Meanwhile, Chinese and Korean authorities have identified the actual hackers, a Korean and a Chinese, and are looking for them now, an unnamed Korean police official said.

The criminals hacked into the “Auction” database, making off with the personal information of at least 10.8 million customers.

In late March, Chinese authorities arrested and investigated three individuals — two Koreans and a Chinese — in connection with the case. One of the Koreans introduced the Korean mastermind with the hackers, while the Chinese was reportedly a hacker.

KBS, meanwhile, is reporting that the Chinese arrested WAS the hacker who launched the attack, although Chinese authorities are yet refusing to confirm this officially.

KBS also talked to Chinese hackers who claim there is something of a black market for Korean personal information in China. They say Koreans hire Chinese hackers to break into sites to get information, which is then handed over and sold in Korea.

As it appears nothing yet has been officially confirmed, we’ll have to wait for more details.

Just to show that hackers have a sense of humor, the vice head of PR for “Auction” said on CBS radio last month that the hacking program employed in the attack was named “Fuck KR,” leading at the time to speculation that the attack was anti-Korean in nature.

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Okay, not really, but the picture is deserving of some kind of (attempt at a) witty remark.  It’s not every day you get a image of the two greatest living oligopolists of their respective countries conspiring with each other.

Anyways, looks like Bill Gates came to Korea on Tuesday to meet with LMB, business leaders and talk about the future of the Internet and IT industries.  He also came to town bearing gifts with an a promise to invest $147 million in Korea over the next five years.

Later that day, Bill Gates and Chung Mong-Koo announced an agreementby Microsoft and Hyundai-Kia to work together to develop a version of Microsoft’s “Sync,” the voice activated system currently used by some Ford (in North America) and Fiat (in Europe) cars.  That’s fine by me as long as my car’s engine doesn’t stall in the middle of the highway because Microsoft’s software inexplicably decides to, uh- stop working.

Update: Evidently, PC Magazine thinks the MS/Hyundai alliance is a good idea.  We’ll get cars with better cockpits, more multimedia integration and cheaper GPS systems.

I love ComputerWorld’s sub headline: “Hate Vista, laugh at Zune, dismiss Windows Mobile? You just might love Microsoft’s Windows for cars.”

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Korean computer skills (well, at least the computer skills of one Korean) are not to be messed with (El Universal):

The information found in the computers of the deceased leader of the rebel Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces (FARC), Raúl Reyes, was not manipulated by Colombian authorities, according to an Interpol’s report to be released next May 15, as disclosed by Bogota El Tiempo daily newspaper.

The report stated that a committee comprising computer science experts from Korea, Australia, and Singapore working for the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol) completed last May 2 the investigation into the three computers found in Reyes’ camp in Ecuador, Efe reported.

(Emphasis added.)

In the words of my two-year-old daughter: Yeah booooooooy! (Yes, I taught her to say that.)

Do I really have to hat tip Instapundit?

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So says today’s BusinessWeek Asia. With Samsung leaping past Motorola last year as the 2nd largest cellphone manufacturer and LG recently leaping past Sony Ericsson to take the #4 spot, consulting group Strategy Analytics says that Motorola is “…in real danger of being overtaken… by… [LG].”

It seems ever since they came up with the RAZR, Motorola has been asleep at the wheel. Is this another case of a once proud American giant getting complacent and letting overseas competitors get the jump?

Rest assured though, Korean companies still have a problem being innovative. In BusinessWeek’s list of the 50 most innovative companies Korea only had one player listed, Samsung at #26. Koreans will be sad to learn that Japan gets four: #16 Honda, #9 Sony (damn Blu-Ray and that PS3!), #7 Nintendo and #3 Toyota. Get this, even the Indians may be more innovative, with Tata Group at #6.

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OK, I will continue carry the banner of the Yi So-yeon around here (and don’t you naysayers try to shake it loose).  Cheers to her as she came back to Korea yesterday and will soon start her new gig(Chosun).

Having earned a doctorate from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology in February, Yi will now work as a researcher for the Korea Aerospace Research Institute and lecture on space science.

In case you might not have heard, Miss Yi’s trip was not a one-shot deal but part of a larger program to develop an indigenous space program, including manned space flight technology.  I have little doubt that Miss Yi’s training and experience with the Russian program and on the International Space Station (along with an assist from Ko San) will help that process along.

Whether the $25 million spent on the launch was a more economical use of research funds than the $2.3 billion that China has spent so far to put one man into space is another question.  Obviously, the Chinese are well ahead if the goal is to put several people a year into space.  I suspect that Korea might be better off shooting for the satellite launch business rather than trying to send humans up on the cheap with their own rockets.

In any case, welcome back to Korea Miss (I guess I should say Dr.) Yi.

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She landed safely about half-an-hour ago. Congratulations, Miss Yi.

(I stuck this post under “IT Korea” since I couldn’t think of a better place to stick it.)

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Chris DeWolfe of MySpace was just in Korea (Yonsei U.) to announce the Korean version of MySpace.com and it is already looking better than Cyworld since U.S. Cyworld users can not send messages to Cyworld users in Korea or access their account through the Korean portal (infranet!?).

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Something that my friend passed on to me today.

Be sure to check out the comment section after you check out the hot models.

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If you’d like to install Hangul 2005 (or a 60-day trial version thereof) in Ubuntu — and if you’re an Ubuntu user in Korea, I’ll assume you do — here’s how to do it.

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Google Earth is getting some media attention here in Korea, after a netizen discovered that some S. Korean locations were marked as N. Korean.  The locations cited are Ongjin, Baegryeong-do, Daecheong-do, and Socheong-do.  Google Korea responded by stating that “it had not been able to update Google Earth, since it had not received map data from the Korean government, which it had requested in the second half of 2007.”  On the other hand, an industry insider was quoted as saying “that the updates are simple, does not require map data and that Google’s reasoning is unconvincing.”

Also, it seems that this isn’t the first time the netizens took issue with Google regarding how Korean locations are marked.  Last September, netizens protested when clicking on Seoul resulted in the words “Korea under Japanese rule”.

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