Coupang, the country's largest shopping mall, said about 33.7 million items of customer personal information were exposed, prompting moves toward a class-action lawsuit.
On the 30th, class-action lawsuit cafés about the Coupang personal information leak were being opened one after another on Naver. Some cafés saw their membership increase by more than 1,000 in a single day.
Coupang said that on the first report on the 19th it believed the names, emails and addresses of about 4,536 accounts had been leaked, but additional investigation found the scale of the leak had surged to about 33.7 million.
Coupang said, "According to the results investigated so far, the exposed information is order information," adding, "Payment information, including card information, and login-related information are being safely protected."
Still, anxiety is growing as the scale of the damage has increased from the initial estimate. On online communities and moms' cafés, posts read, "It's better to change your password too," and "Just in case, I even changed my card PIN."
There are also concerns about secondary damage. Customers who use Coupang often write the shared entrance door PIN along with the address for the convenience of delivery workers, raising the possibility it was exposed together. Some also said spam calls and texts are likely to increase.
Coupang's response also came under fire. On social media (SNS), users posted comments such as "Is sending a single text all you did?" and "I didn't get the text until a day later," after the company notified customers of the personal information exposure in stages.
Coupang said it has blocked the abnormal access route and strengthened internal monitoring. It added, "Please be especially careful about phone calls and text messages impersonating Coupang," and, "We will do our best to quickly resolve customers' inconvenience and concerns."
The Ministry of Science and ICT decided to form a public-private joint investigation team in connection with Coupang's massive personal information leak. Police also launched an investigation.