E-commerce giant Coupang revealed a data breach compromising personal information from over 165,000 customer accounts, initially detected in November. The leaked data contains names, phone numbers, and addresses provided by customers for shipping purposes. Coupang has informed the impacted customers about the breach, following guidelines from the state’s personal information protection authority.
The disclosure follows heightened scrutiny on Coupang due to a significant data breach disclosed in November, impacting more than 33 million customers in South Korea. This incident led to an official investigation by authorities. Coupang had previously stated that data from only 3,000 accounts was compromised, a claim disputed by regulatory bodies. The recent data leak is linked to the November breach and is not a separate occurrence.
Previously, the acting CEO of Coupang faced extensive police interrogation lasting 12 hours regarding allegations of evidence tampering related to the data breach. Harold Rogers, the interim CEO, refrained from responding to queries about his involvement or potential departure from the country. He is accused of impeding official investigations into the breach, which affected an estimated 33 million users.
Law enforcement authorities suspect that more than 30 million accounts were impacted by the breach and are assessing the credibility of Coupang’s internal investigation. The government criticized the company’s probe for being biased and one-sided. Additionally, a special counsel team questioned the chief executive of a Coupang affiliate concerning allegations of unpaid severance pay for company workers. Chung Jong-chul, CEO of Coupang Fulfillment Services (CFS), a logistics arm of Coupang, faced interrogation as a suspect in the severance pay dispute.
