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South Korea’s largest online retailer, Coupang, has apologised for a massive data breach potentially involving nearly 34 million local customer accounts.<\/p>\n
The country’s internet authority said that it is investigating the breach and that details from the millions of accounts have likely been exposed.<\/p>\n
Coupang is often described as South Korea’s equivalent of Amazon.com. The breach marks the latest in a series of data leaks at major firms in the country, including its telecommunications giant, SK Telecom.<\/p>\n
Coupang told the BBC it became aware of the unauthorised access of personal data of about 4,500 customer accounts on 18 November and immediately reported it to the authorities.<\/p>\n
But later checks found that some 33.7 million customer accounts – all in South Korea – were likely exposed, said Coupang, adding that the breach is believed to have begun as early as June through a server based overseas.<\/p>\n
The exposed data is limited to name, email address, phone number, shipping address and some order histories, Coupang said.<\/p>\n
No credit card information or login credentials were leaked. Those details remain securely protected and no action is required from Coupang users at this point, the firm added.<\/p>\n
The number of accounts affected by the incident represents more than half of South Korea’s roughly-52 million population.<\/p>\n
Coupang, which is founded in South Korea and headquartered in the US, said recently that it had nearly 25 million active users.<\/p>\n
Coupang apologised to its customers and warned them to stay alert to scams impersonating the company.<\/p>\n
The firm did not give details on who is behind the breach.<\/p>\n
South Korean media outlets reported on Sunday that a former Coupang employee from China was suspected of being behind the breach.<\/p>\n
The authorities are assessing the scale of the breach as well as whether Coupang had broken any data protection safety rules, South Korea’s Ministry of Science and ICT said in a statement.<\/p>\n
“As the breach involves the contact details and addresses of a large number of citizens, the Commission plans to conduct a swift investigation and impose strict sanctions if it finds a violation of the duty to implement safety measures under the Protection Act.”<\/p>\n
The incident marks the latest in a series of breaches affecting major South Korean companies this year, despite the country’s reputation for stringent data privacy rules.<\/p>\n
SK Telecom, South Korea’s largest mobile operator, was fined nearly $100m (\u00a376m) over a data breach involving more than 20 million subscribers.<\/p>\n
In September, Lotte Cards also said the data of nearly three million customers was leaked after a cyber-attack on the credit card firm.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n