Nowadays, people think that it is natural to use the Internet for answering questions rather than asking other people or looking in books. The Internet has assembled a tremendous amount of information. However, they can learn not only desired knowledge but also the personal information of other people by surfing the Internet.
  Not long ago, the problem of keyboard warriors, people who post abusive comments and wage war in cyberspace, was a very controversial issue. However, new types of cybercriminals have appeared recently. They pry the personal information out of people and they attack rather directly, while most keyboard warriors keep within the boundaries of spreading false rumors and slandering other people in cyberspace. When a target is decided, they start ‘Googling’ and chase the target’s vestiges such as postings of the past, working online community sites and SNS accounts. They eventually discover extremely intimate information, like the target’s photo or a phone number, and spread this data here and there. The target is bombarded with rumors, like the victim of a witch-hunt.
  Search engines of portal sites such as Google, Naver and Daum have evolved to find more accurate information that users want among a tremendous amount of information. The technology enables obtaining a person’s personal information by entering someone’s ID in a search bar. As a result, some people are being hurt by people who misuse this technology.
  It is a punishable offence to steal the identity of other people. According to the Personal Information Protection Law that was passed in 2011, those who provide personal information to a  third person without agreement of principals of information can be imprisoned for a maximum of five years and fined up to fifty million won. In Article 307 of the penal code, it is likely that libel laws will be invoked in the cases of spreading false information or disclosing personal information without agreement. Even though these laws exist, information leaks still happen openly.
  When personal information is revealed in cyberspace, people are afraid that someone will take revenge out online. In addition, we don’t know who the leaker is because the information spreads too fast. For this reason, many people don’t properly cope with their identity exposure. The punishment for the leaker is very necessary. However, I think the government has to find a way to prevent information leaks in advance.