The Ministry of Science and ICT said on the 29th it will form a public-private joint investigation team in connection with the large-scale personal data leak at Coupang and begin identifying the cause of the incident and preparing measures to prevent a recurrence.
The Personal Information Protection Commission has also begun a full-fledged investigation based on the leak reports that Coupang submitted twice, on the 20th and 29th of this month. In particular, the leaked data is known to include a large volume of sensitive information such as contacts and addresses for many members of the public, and it warned of strong sanctions if violations of safety measure obligations under the Personal Information Protection Act are confirmed.
The government sees a high possibility of secondary damage such as smishing, and said the Ministry of Science and ICT and the Personal Information Protection Commission will jointly provide security advisories to the public through the "Boho Nara" website (www.boho.or.kr).
Coupang said that at the time of the first report on the 19th it believed the names, emails and addresses of about 4,536 accounts had been leaked, but additional investigation confirmed the leak affected as many as 33.7 million accounts.