South Korea’s largest e-commerce giant, Coupang, is investigating a massive data breach that has exposed personal information for approximately 33.7 million customers—nearly two-thirds of the country’s population. The breach reportedly originated from overseas servers and spanned several months.
Business Impact
This is a catastrophic breach of consumer trust for a market leader. While payment data was reportedly not stolen, the loss of names, addresses, and phone numbers fuels large-scale phishing and fraud campaigns. Coupang faces intense regulatory scrutiny, potential class-action lawsuits, and significant reputational damage.
Why It Happened
Preliminary investigations point to a sophisticated external attack that bypassed perimeter defenses, potentially aided by a former employee or compromised developer credentials, allowing unauthorized access to customer databases over an extended period.
Recommended Executive Action
This incident highlights the importance of “insider threat” monitoring and rigorous access controls for developers. Review your organization’s database monitoring to ensure that large, anomalous queries or exports—especially from overseas IPs—trigger immediate alerts.
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