A view of Naver’s headquarters in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, Dec. 8 (Korea Bizwire) — Following the disclosure that personal information belonging to more than 30 million Coupang users had been leaked, South Korea’s leading digital platforms are moving to strengthen cybersecurity, conduct internal audits and guard against potential secondary fraud, industry officials said Sunday.
Major players — including Naver, Kakao and financial platform Toss — have expanded security checks and updated internal protocols in the wake of the Coupang incident, which has heightened public anxiety over identity theft, phishing and unauthorized use of customs identification numbers.
Kakao said it has begun reevaluating its security response procedures and conducting more extensive crisis simulations rooted in real-world attack scenarios. The company has expanded internal monitoring to identify risks earlier and has increased employee training as part of a broader effort to strengthen security across its businesses.
This undated file photo provided by Kakao Pay Corp. shows its headquarters in Pangyo, south of Seoul.
Kakao has also used its KakaoTalk Wallet service to send alert messages aimed at preventing secondary fraud tied to the Coupang breach. As more users seek to reissue their personal customs identification numbers, the company’s “National Secretary Notification” service provides real-time alerts when international deliveries are processed under a user’s name, enabling early detection of identity theft.
Toss, a major financial services platform, said it is performing round-the-clock threat detection, simulated hacking exercises and penetration tests based on internal breach scenarios. The company is preparing to scale up its cybersecurity workforce, with 17 information security positions currently open across its business units.
Naver, for its part, has dedicated security teams in its commerce and shopping divisions and said it allocates resources not only to protecting personal data but also to monitoring service abuse and infrastructure vulnerabilities. The company said it conducts continuous monitoring and preventive measures designed to block unauthorized access to personal information.
The platform sector’s response reflects growing concern that a breach of Coupang’s scale — the largest in the country’s e-commerce history — could spark cascading risks across financial, retail and logistics services. Regulators and lawmakers have already signaled plans to tighten oversight, with experts warning that the incident marks a turning point for cybersecurity expectations among large digital platforms.
Kevin Lee (kevinlee@koreabizwire.com)
