South Korean e-commerce giant Coupang announced that personal data from 33.7 million customer accounts was compromised due to an unauthorized access to its systems. Coupang, often dubbed the 'Amazon of South Korea,' is the country's largest online retail platform. Its services are widely available and reach many Koreans through its 'Rocket' delivery service. In a statement on Saturday, the company said: 'Subsequent investigations revealed that the breach affected approximately 33.7 million customer accounts, all of them in South Korea.' It added that it learned of the breach on November 18 and reported it to the authorities. Coupang had previously stated that it had 24.7 million active customers in its e-commerce business in the third quarter. According to Yonhap News Agency on Sunday, citing unnamed sources, a former Chinese employee of Coupang is suspected of being behind the breach and has left the country. The company stated that the compromised customer data is limited to names, email addresses, phone numbers, shipping addresses, and some order records, but does not include payment or login credentials. The company also noted that the unauthorized access to personal data is believed to have begun on June 24 through overseas servers. Coupang clarified that the investigation is ongoing in cooperation with law enforcement and regulatory authorities.
