Archive · 16 Dec 2025
Massive Data Breach Hits South Korea’s Coupang
A big company in South Korea called Coupang had a very serious problem.
A person who used to work there took important information about almost every adult in South Korea, like their names and phone numbers.
This person did this for almost five months before anyone noticed.
Coupang said they are sorry and will try to make things better.
The government is also investigating and might make the company pay a lot of money because of this mistake.
Many people are upset and don't trust Coupang anymore, but some still use it because it's very convenient.
Coupang, South Korea's equivalent of Amazon, experienced a massive data breach affecting 34 million users, over 90% of the country's working-age population.
The breach exposed personal information including names, phone numbers, and residential building keycodes.
The alleged perpetrator, a former software developer, used an internal authentication key to access the data from overseas servers.
The breach went undetected for nearly five months, from June 24 to November 18, 2023.
Coupang's CEO overseeing South Korea operations resigned, and multiple government investigations are ongoing.
- Who
- Coupang, a South Korean e-commerce company, and its users
- What
- A massive data breach exposing personal information of nearly every adult in South Korea
- When
- The breach occurred from June 24 to November 18, 2023
- Where
- South Korea, with the suspect believed to be in China
- Why
- An alleged former software developer used an internal authentication key to access user data
- Company Affected
- Coupang
- Number of Users Affected
- 34 million
- Data Exposed
- Names, phone numbers, residential building keycodes
- Duration of Breach
- June 24 to November 18
- Suspect's Status
- On the lam in China
- Potential Fine
- Up to $750 million
- CEO Resignation
- Yes, South Korea operations CEO resigned
- Government Investigations
- Multiple ongoing investigations