Park Dae-jun has stepped down as chief executive of South Korean retail giant Coupang following a data breach that exposed the personal information of nearly 34 million people, affecting more than half of the country’s population. In a statement, Park apologised and said he carried a “deep sense of responsibility for the outbreak and the subsequent recovery process.”
Leadership Change Following the Breach
Coupang announced that Harold Rogers, the top lawyer at its U.S.-based parent company, will replace Park as CEO. The company confirmed the transition in a statement, according to a machine translation. Coupang, a dominant force in South Korea’s e-commerce and logistics market, disclosed the breach last month.
Revised Scope of the Breach and Timeline
The company initially reported in November that about 4,500 customers had their information stolen. That figure was later raised significantly after investigations pointed to a breach affecting close to 34 million individuals. Coupang said the intrusion appears to have begun in June but went undetected until November.
Broader Cybersecurity Challenges in South Korea
The Coupang incident is the latest in a series of security failures impacting major corporations and government agencies in South Korea this year. Earlier incidents included a data center fire that caused extensive and irreversible loss of government data, adding to concerns about the resilience of the country’s digital infrastructure.
Featured image credits: Wikimedia Commons
For more stories like it, click the +Follow button at the top of this page to follow us.