Park Dae-joon, CEO of South Korean online retail giant Coupang, has resigned three weeks after the company became aware of a massive data breach that affected approximately 34 million customers.
Coupang
The CEO of South Korean online retail giant Coupang Corporation resigned on Wednesday, three weeks after the company became aware of a massive data breach that affected about 34 million customers.
According to a Google translation of a statement in Korean, Coupang said CEO Park Dae-joon resigned due to the data breach incident that was revealed on November 18th.
President Park said, “I deeply apologize for disappointing the people due to the recent personal information incident,” and “I feel deeply responsible for the spread of infection and the subsequent recovery process, and have decided to step down from all positions.”
Following his resignation, the parent company Coupang Co., Ltd.. Chief Administrative Officer and General Counsel Harold Rogers has been appointed interim CEO.
Mr. Coupang said Mr. Rogers will focus on “reducing customer concerns about data breaches” and stabilizing the organization.
Park, who joined the company in 2012, became Coupang’s sole CEO in May after the company transitioned from a dual CEO structure.
According to Mr. Coupang, he was in charge of the company’s innovative new businesses and regional infrastructure development, and led projects to expand sales channels for small and medium-sized enterprises.
Korean companies are known to be “very cost-efficient,” which may have led to them neglecting areas such as cybersecurity, KB Securities managing director Peter Kim told CNBC’s “Squawkbox Asia” on Wednesday.
“I think the core issue here is that there have been many breaches not only with Coupang, but also with Korean carriers before,” Kim added. “I have heard that some data companies believe that South Korea is in the top three or four in the world for data breaches based on IT security.”
South Korean companies have suffered cybersecurity breaches in the past, including an April incident at mobile carrier SK Telecom that affected 23.24 million people. The country suffered one of the country’s biggest cybersecurity incidents in 2011, when attackers stole more than 35 million user information from internet platforms Neato and Cyworld.
Nate is one of South Korea’s most popular search engines, and Cyworld was one of South Korea’s largest social networking sites in the early 2000s.
South Korean media outlet Yonhap News reported that Prime Minister Kim Min-seok said on Wednesday that strict measures would be taken against the company if it is found to be violating the law.
Police raided Coupang’s headquarters for a second day on Wednesday, continuing their investigation into the data breach.
Yonhap News also reported, citing sources, that the police search warrant “named a Chinese national who worked for Coupang as a suspect on charges of infiltrating information and communication networks and leaking confidential data.”
Last week, South Korean President Lee Jae-myung said the Coupang data breach was a wake-up call and called for tougher penalties for data breaches.
—CNBC’s Chery Kang contributed to this report.
