Coupang Employee Attempted to Destroy evidence in Data Breach

The former employee behind the recent coupang data breach tried to cover his tracks by smashing his MacBook Air and throwing it into a river, the company revealed in a recent update on the incident.

The alleged perpetrator panicked when news outlets reported on the Coupang breach, the December 25 update said. “Among other things, the perpetrator stated that he physically smashed his MacBook Air laptop, placed it in a canvas Coupang bag, loaded the bag with bricks, and threw the bag into a nearby river,” the update said.

Using maps and descriptions from the former employee, divers were able to recover the laptop from the river. “It was exactly as the perpetrator claimed-in a canvas Coupang bag loaded with bricks-and its serial number matched the serial number in the perpetrator’s iCloud account,” Coupang said.

Coupang has as updated the post twice, once to reassure customers that the company was cooperating fully with the government in its investigation, and the second time to announce a “customer compensation plan to restore customer trust” with vouchers worth about USD $35 (50,000 won) per customer.

Coupang Breach Smaller than Feared

Much of the update sought to reassure customers of the Korean online retailer that the breach was smaller than initially feared.

While initial reports said the breach – wich lead to the CEO’s resignation – might have compromised the data of more than 33 million, Coupang said its investigation indicates that while the perpetrator may have accessed 33 million accounts, he “retained limited user data from onyl 3,000 accounts and subsequently deleted the user data.”