Record-Breaking 620 Billion Won Fine Imposed on Coupang; Non-Members Also Affected by Data Breach

[Anchor]

A record-breaking fine of over 600 billion won has been imposed on Coupang following a massive personal data breach. It has been confirmed that the information of 4.33 million non-members was leaked, in addition to that of 33 million members.

Reporter Jeong Jun-ho has the story.

[Reporter]

The massive personal data breach at Coupang occurred in November of last year.

Seven months after launching an investigation, the Personal Information Protection Commission (PIPC) has decided to impose a fine of 620 billion won on Coupang.

This amount is more than four times the 134.7 billion won fine previously imposed on SK Telecom for the data breach involving 23 million customers.

It is the largest fine in history.

The fine consists of 420 billion won for the personal data breach and 200 billion won for the unauthorized collection of online activity data from over 10 million members.

The number of victims grew during the investigation process.

Beyond the 33.22 million members, the personal information of 4.33 million non-members—such as family members and acquaintances included in delivery address information—was also leaked.

A total of approximately 37.5 million people were affected, with their names, phone numbers, addresses, shared entrance door codes, and order histories compromised.

The government stated that Coupang failed to adhere to even basic safety management protocols.

Management of authentication signature keys was so poor that former employees could freely access entire member accounts, and there was no follow-up action taken even after suspicious activity was detected on pages containing personal information.

[Song Kyung-hee / Chairperson of the Personal Information Protection Commission: This incident did not occur due to sophisticated hacking methods, but rather due to Coupang's inadequate basic safety management system and negligence.]

The company even obstructed the investigation by deleting five months' worth of access logs, despite a government order to preserve evidence.

[Kim Seung-joo / Professor at Korea University's Graduate School of Information Security: It seems to clearly demonstrate that 'companies uncooperative with investigations will face higher fines'... In fact, even abroad, such acts of obstructing investigations are viewed very severely.]

Separately, the PIPC imposed a fine of 220 million won on Coupang Fulfillment Services, a logistics subsidiary, for unauthorized collection of personal information of 71 reporters from the National Police Agency press corps and registering them on an employment restriction list.

(Reported by Jeong Jun-ho | Video by Jo Chun-dong | Video Editing by Park Ji-in)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.