Coupang CEO Questioned Over Alleged Obstruction in Massive Data Breach Case

The CEO of South Korea’s largest online retailer was questioned by the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency over allegations of obstructing an official investigation into a major data breach that impacted more than 33 million users.

 

Coupang, also a U.S.-listed e-commerce company, experienced a major data breach in 2025 that exposed personal information of approximately 33.7 million users—about two-thirds of South Korea’s population. The breach began on June 24, 2025, but was not detected until November 18, 2025. The compromised data included customer names, email addresses, phone numbers, shipping addresses, and order histories. Importantly, no credit card information or login credentials were accessed.

 

The breach was traced to a former Coupang employee, a 43-year-old Chinese national, who retained access to internal systems after leaving the company in 2024 and exploited the authentication management system. This individual reportedly threatened to disclose the data unless security improvements were made.

 

Following the incident, Coupang’s CEO Park Dae-jun resigned and was replaced by Harold Rogers as interim CEO. South Korean police raided Coupang’s headquarters as part of its ongoing investigation, collecting digital evidence to determine the breach’s scope and cause.

 

South Korean media reported that Rogers was questioned for 12 hours over alleged evidence destruction linked to the data breach, as police scrutinised Coupang’s internal probe that found 3,000 accounts affected despite estimates exceeding 30 million.

 

Investigators also examined Coupang’s handling of a laptop tied to the hack. The company recovered the device from a former employee in China and handed it to police, but allegedly failed to reveal it had already performed a forensic analysis. Rogers was questioned about the undisclosed contact with the suspect and the treatment of the evidence.

 

In December, Rogers appeared at a two-day parliamentary hearing on the retailer’s data security incident. He is now accused of perjury over testimony in which he said the internal investigation was conducted at the request of the National Intelligence Service, a claim the NIS has denied.

 

Upon arriving for the investigation, Rogers said in a statement to the media that Coupang has fully cooperated and will continue to cooperate with all government probes, including the police investigation.