Seoul: Science Minister Bae Kyung-hoon on Tuesday reaffirmed that a recent data leak at Coupang Inc. affected 33 million customers in South Korea, highlighting that the U.S.-listed e-commerce giant had "malicious intent" in its unilateral release of an assessment report claiming significantly less damage last week.
According to Yonhap News Agency, the joint government-private sector investigation, including the Personal Information Protection Commission and the police, revealed that the names and email addresses of more than 33 million users were leaked. Bae made these remarks during a parliamentary session. Coupang had previously claimed to have identified a former employee responsible for the data leak through forensic evidence, stating that the data from only about 3,000 accounts was saved and later deleted by the suspect.
The government, however, dismissed Coupang's findings as a "unilateral claim," indicating that a joint public-private investigation into the incident has yet to release any conclusions. "We cannot agree with that claim," Bae said, adding that details such as users' addresses and order information were also believed to have been leaked.
Bae expressed grave concern toward Coupang, criticizing the company for issuing an announcement not coordinated with the government. He suggested that Coupang had extremely malicious intent, noting that the suspect accessed the company's servers to view and download users' information. The minister further explained that the laptop submitted by Coupang, owned by a former employee suspected of the leak, does not prove that only 3,000 accounts were compromised. "The suspect could have uploaded the information to a cloud server rather than saving it on a laptop or desktop computer, and we need to conduct such analysis," he added.
On Monday, Coupang announced a compensation plan worth 1.685 trillion won (US$1.17 billion) after the company's founder, Kim Bom-suk, issued his first public apology since the incident. However, the plan to pay 50,000 won per affected user faced criticism from consumer rights groups, who described it as a marketing strategy aimed at encouraging additional purchases and renewed memberships.
During the same parliamentary hearing, Harold Rogers, interim CEO of Coupang Corp., the South Korean unit of Coupang, faced scrutiny from lawmakers for what they described as unsatisfactory responses. When questioned about offering additional compensation to affected consumers, Rogers stated that the company's compensation plan was voluntary and unprecedented, suggesting it was sufficient.
Addressing criticism over the absence of Coupang's founder at the hearing, Rogers stated: "Our entire board of directors, including our chairman, is aware of this issue, is concerned about it and takes it very seriously. However, I am the executive in charge of Coupang Korea and will be managing the company through this incident."