South Korea fines Coupang $409 million over massive data breach

South Korea's Personal Information Protection Commission (PIPC) imposed a record penalty of 625 billion won (about US$409 million) on e‑commerce platform Coupang after a large‑scale breach exposed personal information of more than 30 million customers. The regulator found that inadequate security controls, including poor management of authentication keys, allowed unauthorized access to customer data, and that the company had also collected online activity data from about 11 million users without consent. The fine consists of 423.6 billion won for the breach and an additional 201 billion won for illegal data collection. Coupang, a US‑based firm whose revenue primarily comes from South Korea, apologized and said it will strengthen security, while also indicating it will challenge the decision. Following the incident, CEO Park Dae‑jun resigned and chief administrative officer Harold Rogers was appointed interim CEO. The case highlights increasing regulatory scrutiny of data privacy in the digital economy.