Toll of Coupang breach exceeds 30M, authorities report

More than 30 million accounts with names, emails, and other personal details were noted by South Korean police to have been impacted by the December breach at the leading South Korean e-commerce firm Coupang, which had downplayed the incident to have only affected 3,000 accounts following an internal investigation that showed its former employee to have discarded data from most of the accounts that had been accessed, reports Korea JoongAng Daily.

Such a nearly 10,000-fold difference in figures may have stemmed from varying parameters in gauging the extent of the data security incident, according to Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency Commissioner Park Jeong-bo, who noted the need for additional investigation into whether Coupang had underreported the breach.

Meanwhile, Coupang Korea Interim CEO Harold Rogers has already been given his third police summons related to possible evidence tampering in the firm's internal probe amid an ongoing investigation into the suspected threat actor.

"The outline of the case is nearly complete, including the method of access," Park said.