Coupang CEO Park Daejun Apologizes to Customers and Public, Vows to Prevent Further Damage (Comprehensive)

Coupang Issues Official Apology for Personal Information Leak Affecting 33.7 Million Accounts
CEO Park Daejun Releases Statement

Coupang has issued an official apology regarding the large-scale personal information leak involving over 33 million records.

On the 30th, Coupang posted an apology on its website under the name of CEO Daegun Park, stating, "We regret the recent incident at Coupang that began on June 24 this year," and added, "We sincerely apologize to the public for the significant inconvenience and concern this has caused."

Coupang CEO Daejun Park is publicly apologizing for the large-scale personal information leak incident at the Government Seoul Office on the 30th. Photo by Yonhap News

CEO Park explained, "From June this year until recently, there was unauthorized access to customer information," and clarified, "The customer information that was accessed without authorization was limited to names, customer emails, phone numbers, delivery addresses, and certain order details. Payment information, credit card information, and customer login credentials were not included."

He continued, "Protecting all customer information is Coupang's highest priority," adding, "We take this obligation extremely seriously and maintain comprehensive data protection and security measures and processes."

Park also stated, "Coupang will do its utmost to prevent further damage by working closely with the joint public-private investigation team, including the Ministry of Science and ICT, the Personal Information Protection Commission, the Korea Internet & Security Agency, and the National Police Agency." He added, "We are currently reviewing what changes can be made to our existing data security measures and systems to better protect customer data from such incidents in the future."

He emphasized again, "We sincerely apologize once more for the concern and distress caused to our customers," and stressed, "Coupang will continue to prioritize the safety and security of customer information above all else."

According to Coupang, as of the previous day, the number of customer accounts affected by the personal information leak had reached approximately 33.7 million. Previously, on the 18th, the company announced that it had identified unauthorized exposure of personal information from about 4,500 accounts. However, follow-up investigations revealed that the number of affected accounts was about 7,500 times higher than initially reported.

The leaked information includes customer names, emails, phone numbers, addresses, and certain order details. In response to this incident, the government has formed a joint public-private investigation team to analyze the cause of the breach and develop measures to prevent recurrence.

Additionally, the Cyber Investigation Unit of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency received a complaint from Coupang regarding this incident on the 25th and has launched an investigation into the personal information leak. The leak is believed to have been caused not by hacking, but by a Coupang employee. This employee is reportedly a Chinese national who has already left Coupang and departed from Korea. In the complaint submitted to the police, Coupang did not specify an individual but listed the accused as an "unidentified person."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.