By Lee Mi-ji

Published 2025.12.25. 15:48Updated 2025.12.25. 18:10

Coupang announced on the 25th that it had received a confession from a former Chinese employee who illegally leaked the personal information of 33.7 million customers and recovered PCs and laptops used in the crime. “The actual number of personal information items stored by the employee was around 3,000, significantly fewer than the number of information items accessed,” Coupang explained.

Scene of Coupang's logistics center in Jung-gu, Seoul on the 25th. /News1

In materials distributed that day, Coupang stated, “Using forensic evidence such as digital fingerprints, we identified the former employee who leaked customer information. The leaker confessed to all actions and provided detailed statements on how they accessed the customer information.”

According to the leaker’s statements, the individual used stolen security keys to access basic customer information for 33.7 million customer accounts but stored customer information for only about 3,000 of those accounts. The information included 2,609 shared entrance access codes, as well as names, email addresses, phone numbers, addresses, and some order details.

After investigations began in South Korea, the leaker attempted to destroy evidence by damaging laptops used in the crime and discarding them into a river. Divers later recovered the laptops from the river, and Coupang confirmed that the serial numbers matched.

Coupang stated, “The leaker also deleted all stored information after coming across media reports on the incident, and it was confirmed that no customer information was transmitted to third parties.” Additionally, “On the 17th of this month, we submitted to the government statements received from the leaker and related devices used in the personal information leak.”

Coupang added, “We will continue to provide updates based on the progress of future investigations and plan to separately announce customer compensation measures shortly.”