SEOUL, South Korea — Personal information belonging to more than 30 million Coupang customers may have been leaked, a senior police official said Monday, raising the possibility that authorities could seek the detention of the company’s interim chief executive for failing to respond to multiple summonses.
Park Jeong-bo, head of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency, made the remarks during a media briefing, disputing Coupang’s claim that the data breach affected only a limited number of users.
“It is not yet confirmed how much data has been leaked, but we believe that data from more than 30 million accounts have been stolen,” Park said.
He added that investigators need to determine whether Coupang deliberately attempted to downplay the scale of the breach.
Coupang announced the findings of its own internal probe on Dec. 25, saying that a former employee of Chinese nationality stole personal information from 33 million users but saved data related to only 3,000 individuals.
Police are seeking to question interim CEO Harold Rogers as part of their investigation into the company’s handling of the incident. Rogers was summoned to appear before police on Jan. 5 and Jan. 14 but failed to attend on both occasions. A third summons has since been issued, though the date has not yet arrived.
When asked whether police would seek an arrest warrant if Rogers ignores the third summons, Park said it was difficult to make a blanket judgment without first examining the reasons for his nonappearance.
However, Park did not rule out the possibility, noting that all individuals are treated in accordance with standard procedures and that an arrest warrant request may be made if certain conditions are met. Police typically seek arrest warrants when a person ignores three or more summonses. (Source: IANS)
