Park Dae-jun has resigned as chief executive of the South Korean retail giant Coupang. This follows a major data breach that exposed the personal information of more than half the country’s population. In a statement, Park apologized for the breach, expressing a deep sense of responsibility for the incident and the recovery process.
Coupang has appointed Harold Rogers as the new chief executive. Rogers was previously the top lawyer at Coupang’s U.S.-based parent company. The company is often compared to Amazon for its dominance in South Korea’s e-commerce and logistics sectors.
Last month, Coupang revealed details of the data breach, which affected close to 34 million people. The breach allegedly began in June but was not discovered until November. Initially, the company stated that over 4,500 customers had their data stolen, but later revised that figure dramatically upward.
The Coupang hack is the latest in a series of security incidents affecting major corporations and the central government in South Korea this year. Other incidents include a data center fire that led to a massive and irretrievable loss of government data.