South Korean e commerce giant Coupang, often called the Amazon of South Korea suffered an unprecedented security breach affecting almost 34 million customer accounts.
Breach Details and Scope
Coupang, the country’s top online retailer confirmed that due to unauthorized data access, millions of accounts were exposed exclusively in Korea. The company became aware of the breach on November 18th and immediately reported the case to the Personal Information Protection Commission, the police, and the Korea Internet and Security Agency (KISA).
Coupang believes the unauthorized access began on June 24th through overseas servers and grew to an unprecedented scale, affecting far more users than the initially estimated 4,500 individuals. The company’s product commerce active customers stood at 24.7 million in the third quarter.
Hackers managed to access a trove of personal data, including the customer's name, email address, phone number, shipping address, and certain order histories. Coupang confirmed that payment details or login credentials were not compromised. According to the Yonhap News Agency, a former Chinese employee at Coupang is suspected of orchestrating the breach, though the investigation is ongoing.
Regulatory and Customer Fallout
CEO Park Dae jun apologized for the inconvenience caused to customers. Following the disclosure, the government held an emergency meeting to investigate whether Coupang violated safety rules regarding personal information protection, according to Minister of Science and ICT Bae Kyung hoon.
The Korea Internet & Security Agency (KISA) issued an advisory to affected individuals, explaining how to mitigate the risk of potential phishing scams. Coupang is currently facing the fallout from the massive breach, with reports indicating that some customers are preparing to file a class action lawsuit.
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