South Korea’s President Lee Jae Myung has ordered swift action to penalize those responsible for a major data leak at e-commerce giant Coupang, which has affected over 33 million customers. The breach, which occurred through overseas servers from June 24 to November 8, was only discovered by the company last month. President Lee expressed astonishment that Coupang failed to recognize the breach for five months, calling the scale of the damage “massive”.

Coupang, South Korea’s most popular online shopping platform, provides lightning-fast deliveries of products ranging from groceries to gadgets to millions of customers. The leak exposed customers’ names, email addresses, phone numbers, shipping addresses, and some order histories, although payment details and login credentials were not affected. The company has issued a complaint against a former employee, a Chinese national, who is alleged to be the culprit behind the breach.

The South Korean government has vowed to strengthen fines and impose punitive damages, with President Lee calling for “substantive and effective countermeasures” to address the issue. The cause of the accident must be quickly identified, and those responsible must be held strictly accountable, he emphasized. Police are currently tracing computer IP addresses and exploring possible international collaboration as part of their investigation, warning that the leak could “threaten the daily lives and safety of every single citizen”.

This incident follows a major breach at South Korea’s largest mobile carrier, SK Telecom, which was fined approximately $91 million in August after a cyberattack exposed data on nearly 27 million users. South Korea, one of the world’s most wired countries, has been a target of hacking by arch-rival North Korea. Last year, police announced that North Korean hackers were behind the theft of sensitive data from a South Korean court computer network, including individuals’ financial records, over a two-year period.

The recent cyberattack on cryptocurrency exchange Upbit, which led to the unauthorized withdrawal of $44.5 billion won in digital assets, is also suspected to be the work of a North Korean hacking group. As the investigation into the Coupang breach continues, the South Korean government’s swift response aims to mitigate the damage and prevent similar incidents in the future. With the country’s high level of digital connectivity, ensuring the security of personal data is a growing concern, and the government’s actions will be closely watched by citizens and international observers alike.