Coupang Data Breach Exposes 33.7 Million Accounts

South Korean e-commerce giant Coupang disclosed a massive data breach on Saturday that exposed personal information from 33.7 million customer accounts, affecting nearly its entire user base in the country. The incident, which began with unauthorized access on June 24 through overseas servers, came to light on November 18 when the company detected suspicious activity and reported it to authorities.

Coupang, often called the Amazon of South Korea for its Rocket Delivery service, confirmed the breach affected users' names, phone numbers, email addresses, home addresses, and certain order histories. Payment details, credit card information, and login credentials remained secure, as they were stored separately under enhanced protections. The company, which reported 24.7 million active commercial users in the third quarter, stated it has blocked the unauthorized channels and bolstered internal monitoring to prevent further incidents.

The breach stemmed from a failure to revoke digital access credentials issued to a former employee of Chinese nationality, who had worked on the company's authentication and access management systems. After leaving Coupang, the individual allegedly used...