Deputy Prime Minister Baek Kyunghoon: "Beware of Impersonation Calls... All-Out Effort to Prevent Secondary Damages from Coupang Data Breach"

Government Holds Emergency Ministers' Meeting to Discuss Response Measures
Joint Public-Private Investigation Team Launched... CEO Park Daejoon Issues Apology

On November 30, the government held an emergency meeting of relevant ministers at the Government Complex Seoul to discuss measures for managing the aftermath of the Coupang security breach and personal information incident.

A Coupang logistics center in downtown Seoul. Photo by Yonhap News

The meeting was presided over by Baek Kyunghoon, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Science and ICT, and attended by Yoon Changryeol, Chief of the Office for Government Policy Coordination, Song Kyunghee, Chairperson of the Personal Information Protection Commission, and Yoo Jaesung, Acting Commissioner General of the National Police Agency, among others.

The Ministry of Science and ICT stated, "Since receiving reports of the security breach and personal information leak from Coupang on November 19 and 20, we have been conducting on-site investigations." The ministry added, "During the investigation, it was confirmed that the attacker exploited authentication vulnerabilities in Coupang's servers to leak the names, emails, delivery phone numbers, and addresses of more than 30 million customer accounts without proper login."

Starting today, the government has launched a joint public-private investigation team. In particular, the Personal Information Protection Commission is focusing on whether Coupang violated its safety obligations related to personal information protection, such as access control, access rights management, and encryption. Additionally, the government issued a nationwide security notice the previous day to prevent secondary damages such as personal information and financial theft through phishing and smishing attacks that exploit this incident. The government also announced that, for the next three months, it will designate a period for strengthened monitoring of personal information leaks and illegal distribution on the internet, including the dark web.

Deputy Prime Minister Baek emphasized, "Please be especially cautious of phone calls or text messages impersonating Coupang to prevent secondary damages," and added, "We will do our utmost to resolve the inconvenience and concerns caused to the public by this incident."

Meanwhile, Park Daejoon, CEO of Coupang, who attended the meeting, bowed his head and said, "I sincerely apologize for causing concern to Coupang customers and the public." He continued, "We will fully cooperate with the government’s joint investigation team to ensure the situation is resolved as quickly as possible."

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