Coupang CEO Park Dae-jun (L), seen here testifying at a parliamentary session on Dec. 3, resigned Wednesday over a customer data leak affecting nearly 34 million users. Photo by Yonhap
E-commerce giant Coupang Inc. said Wednesday that Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Park Dae-jun has resigned over a recent customer data leak affecting nearly 34 million users.
“I deeply apologize for disappointing the public over the recent data breach, and have decided to step down from all my positions to take full responsibility for both the incident and the company’s response,” Park said in a statement.
Coupang’s U.S.-based parent company has appointed Harold Rogers, its chief administrative officer (CAO) and general counsel, as interim CEO to lead the company’s response and address customer concerns, the company said in a press release.
Rogers will focus on managing the internal and external fallout from the incident and restoring organizational stability, indicating that the parent firm will take an active role in handling the aftermath of the data leak, it said.
The U.S.-listed company again apologized for the concern caused by the massive data leak, vowing to strengthen information security measures and do its utmost to prevent a recurrence and restore customer trust.
On Nov. 29, Coupang confirmed that personal information from 33.7 million customer accounts had been exposed, far higher than the 4,500 accounts initially reported to authorities on Nov. 20.
The number of affected users is equivalent to nearly two-thirds of the country’s population.
Given that active users of Coupang’s Product Commerce division, which includes its delivery service, reached 24.7 million in the third quarter, the scale of the leak suggests that nearly the entire user base may have been affected.
The updated figure indicates that users’ personal information — including names, phone numbers, email addresses and delivery addresses — was compromised.
However, the company said payment details and login credentials were not affected.
On Monday, the presidential office called on the company to provide answers on how it plans to compensate affected consumers.
Police raided Coupang’s Seoul headquarters for a second straight day on Wednesday, saying the operation was necessary to carry out a comprehensive investigation based on the evidence collected.
Coupang, which is facing a class-action lawsuit in the United States, has said the leak occurred through its overseas servers beginning June 24 and that it became aware of the incident last month.
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