Anchor: E-commerce giant Coupang is under fire after a surprise announcement on Christmas Day that the government says it had no right to make. Coupang claims to have tracked down the person responsible for a data breach that compromised its customers’ personal data, blaming a former employee and suggesting the leak was less serious than previously believed. But authorities say the platform was wrong to disclose details of an ongoing investigation and warn that its statements haven’t been verified.
Choi You Sun reports.

Report: E‑commerce giant Coupang claimed it has identified a former employee as the culprit behind a recent data breach and retrieved all related devices. 

In a press release on Thursday, Coupang said the former employee accessed the information of 33-point-seven million customers but only saved data from around three-thousand accounts.

The company also said an investigation conducted by three overseas cybersecurity firms found no evidence of any external data transfer.

In response, the Ministry of Science and ICT said Coupang’s claims require verification by a joint public-private team that is looking into the data breach.

The ministry also admonished the company for disclosing the information to the public with an investigation still in progress.

The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency said Thursday that it is in the process of verifying Coupang’s claim that the former worker confessed, based on a written statement the company submitted on Sunday saying it came from the ex-employee, along with the laptop it said was used in the breach.

An official from the presidential office told KBS that Coupang acted inappropriately by publicly releasing the results of its internal probe, saying it had no such authority as the subject of an active investigation.

Meanwhile, Seoul will elevate its investigation into the Coupang personal data breach by placing its response team in the hands of Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Science and ICT Bae Kyung-hoon.

The government said it will initiate institutional reforms to prevent harm to consumers, since data breaches involving major platform companies have a significant impact on people’s daily lives.

In a response issued Friday, Coupang said it was acting on instructions from the government when it submitted the devices and the ex-employee’s confession. 
Choi You Sun, KBS World Radio News.