SEOUL-- LG Uplus Corp., South Korea's third-largest wireless carrier, said Tuesday the personal information of 180,000 customers has been leaked.

"We have acknowledged that personal data of some customers have been leaked," LG Uplus said in a message posted on its website. "We apologize for causing concern to our customers."

The company said it has lost the names, birth dates and phone numbers of the customers but their financial data are safe. It did not elaborate on the cause of the data breach.

LG Uplus recognized the leak on Jan. 2 and reported it to the police the next day, according to a company official.

It said it will do its best to strengthen its network monitoring system and come up with effective measures to prevent recurrences.

LG Uplus had 19.5 million mobile subscribers as of the third quarter last year, following market leader SK Telecom Co. and runner-up KT Corp.

Source: Yonhap News Agency