Coupang's Surprise Announcement Puts Government Investigation of Data Leak to the Test

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Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Science and ICT Bae Kyunghoon is taking the lead in the investigation into Coupang's massive personal information leak incident. The government has decided to respond after Coupang made a surprise announcement of its own investigation results without confirmation from the joint public-private investigation team.

According to the Ministry of Science and ICT on December 26, the government will expand the cross-ministerial task force (TF) on Coupang's personal information leak, previously led by Second Vice Minister Ryu Jemyeong, to be headed by the Deputy Prime Minister for Science and ICT, and will accelerate the joint public-private investigation. The seriousness of the incident was once again underscored as a ministerial-level meeting was held at the presidential office even on a holiday the previous day, and the government also expressed regret over being bypassed in the process.

The Ministry of Science and ICT stated, "We will conduct a thorough investigation and response to the personal information leak at platform companies," adding, "We will also diligently prepare fundamental institutional improvements to prevent information leaks and consumer damage at platform companies and similar entities."

Regarding the investigation results announced earlier by Coupang, the ministry strongly protested, saying, "Coupang unilaterally disclosed matters that are still under investigation by the joint public-private investigation team." The ministry further clarified, "The investigation team is closely examining the types and scale of the leaked information, as well as the circumstances of the leak," and emphasized, "Coupang's claims have not been verified."

The government plans to be even more cautious in its investigation while also strengthening the social responsibility of online platforms. With the announcement of the results of the KT investigation into unauthorized micro-payment damages and hacking incidents that occurred in early September imminent, and with a recent large-scale personal information leak at Asiana Airlines, a Ministry of Science and ICT official stated, "We will work to overhaul the system to establish fundamental countermeasures," and added, "Announcing results quickly is important, but we are placing greater emphasis on accuracy."

The Personal Information Protection Commission is focusing on introducing punitive fines of up to 10% of sales for repeated and serious leak incidents. Kim Jongcheol, Chairman of the Broadcasting, Media and Communications Committee, stressed, "Companies must pursue profit within a constitutionally fair order," and added, "The prerequisite for this is fulfilling their social responsibility."

According to Coupang's own investigation results announced the previous day regarding this personal information leak, the former employee who leaked the data used stolen security keys to access basic customer information for 33 million customer accounts, but only stored information for about 3,000 accounts (including name, email, phone number, address, and some order information). Among this data, there were 2,609 shared entrance access codes. The leaker stated that after seeing media reports about the incident, they deleted all stored information and that none of the customer data was transmitted to any third party.

In this regard, Coupang emphasized that from the early stages of the incident, it had commissioned investigations by three of the world's top global cybersecurity firms-Mandiant, Palo Alto Networks, and Ernst & Young-and had been submitting relevant materials to the government as soon as they were secured. This is interpreted as Coupang proactively announcing the results to the public because the government did not disclose these facts even after receiving the investigation details.

Some critics argue that Coupang's announcement is an attempt to frame the incident as a "rogue employee's misconduct," minimize the scale of the damage, and reduce its management and oversight responsibility. Kwon Heonyoung, a professor at Korea University’s Graduate School of Information Security, said, "The announcement emphasized that the perpetrator was identified, there was no secondary damage, and all information was recovered, which is likely to serve as a favorable argument for the company in future regulatory or legal actions in the United States. For now, it can only be seen as a response to reduce responsibility."

Coupang's lack of a responsible stance regarding this incident is also fueling public outrage. Bom Kim, Chairman of Coupang Inc and founder of Coupang, has not issued any apology or explanation regarding the incident, despite mounting anger from the government, political circles, Coupang employees, and consumers, and continues to ignore repeated requests to appear before the National Assembly.

Harold Rogers, the new CEO of Coupang, appeared at the hearing on Coupang's breach incident held on the 17th at the National Assembly's Science, Technology, Information and Broadcasting and Communications Committee, responding to lawmakers' questions. 2025.12.17 Photo by Kim Hyunmin

There is also growing criticism that Coupang is spreading messages in the United States that question the regulatory moves of the Korean National Assembly. Robert O'Brien, who served as National Security Advisor during the first Donald Trump administration, recently posted on his social media, "It would be very unfortunate if Korea undermines those efforts by targeting American tech companies," thereby criticizing the regulatory moves surrounding Coupang.

Meanwhile, the National Assembly plans to hold a large-scale joint hearing on December 30-31, involving six standing committees: the Science, Technology, Information, Broadcasting and Communications Committee; the Political Affairs Committee; the Land, Infrastructure and Transport Committee; the Climate, Energy, Environment and Labor Committee; the Planning and Finance Committee; and the Foreign Affairs and Unification Committee. At this hearing, it is expected that the responsibility of Chairman Kim and other management will be examined, as well as whether there has been any lobbying of American political and government figures and the adequacy of Coupang's personal information management system.

In political circles, there have been calls to foster domestic distribution companies as alternatives to Coupang. Park Junghoon, a lawmaker from the People Power Party, posted on his social media the previous day, "Coupang has poured trillions of won to dominate the distribution network and has covered risks with lobbying by changing its government relations line every time the administration changes," adding, "We need to foster domestic companies such as Emart, Gmarket, and Lotte Mart as alternatives so that we have the strength to stand up to their abuses."