Personal information from more than 30 million Coupang customers is believed to have been leaked, a top police official said
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SEOUL — Personal information from more than 30 million Coupang customers is believed to have been leaked, a top police official said on Monday, leaving open the possibility that the detention of the company's interim CEO, Harold Rogers, who has ignored two police summonses, will be sought.
Park Jeong-bo, head of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency, made the remarks, refuting Coupang's own conclusion that the scope of the data leak was only 3,000 cases, reports Yonhap news agency.
"It is not yet confirmed how much data has been leaked, but we believe that data from more than 30 million accounts have been stolen," Park said in a media briefing.
He said it is necessary to check whether Coupang had intended to downplay the scope of its data breach.
Coupang announced the results of its own probe Dec. 25, stating that a former employee of Chinese nationality stole personal information from 33 million users but only saved the data of 3,000 individuals.
The police have sought to question Rogers to investigate the circumstances surrounding the company's own probe. Rogers was twice asked to appear before police on Jan. 5 and 14, respectively, but he failed to show up. The police have since sent him a third summons, whose date has not yet arrived.
Asked about the possibility of the police requesting an arrest warrant for Rogers if he fails to comply with the third summons, Park said it is difficult to make a blanket statement because of the need to check the reason behind his nonappearance.
But Park left open the possibility of seeking an arrest warrant for Rogers by saying that everyone will be treated in accordance with standard procedures and an arrest warrant request can be made if certain conditions are met. Police usually apply for an arrest warrant if someone ignores three or more summonses.