South Korean police have started forensic examination of a suspect's laptop, recovered by Coupang in the data breach affecting 33 million customers. The e-commerce firm claims a former employee accessed and saved data from 3,000 accounts but deleted it without external transfer—a statement dismissed by authorities as unverified.
In the ongoing Coupang data breach investigation—previously detailed with business impacts and a presidential emergency meeting on December 25—police from the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency's cyber unit are verifying if the laptop belongs to the suspect, was used in the crime, and remained untampered after submission on December 22.
Coupang identified the former employee through internal forensics, secured a confession, and recovered devices including a hard drive and laptop via an unconventional method involving divers. The company stresses no sensitive data like payments or credentials was leaked, only basic info (names, emails, phones, addresses) from ~33 million accounts was accessed, with just 3,000 saved before deletion post-media reports.
Authorities, including a private-public joint team formed last month, reject Coupang's 'unilateral' claims pending full probe into leak scope and cause. The meeting, chaired by presidential chief of staff Kim Yong-beom, involved science minister, privacy commission chair, Foreign Minister Cho Hyun, and intelligence officials, signaling scrutiny of Coupang's U.S. ties amid the breach's severity.
