Japan’s cybersecurity chief declared a state of emergency in cyberspace after attacks hit more than 20 major companies. The breaches may have exposed tens of millions of customer records.
The affected firms include East Japan Railway (JR East), convenience store chain Lawson, and secondhand retailer Bookoff Group. The attacks prompted an emergency meeting of the government’s National Cybersecurity Strategy Headquarters.
Many of the breaches have been traced to a ransomware attack on IDC Frontier, a SoftBank cloud services subsidiary. The attack affected an estimated 495 corporate and government clients.
The compromised information largely consists of personal data, including email addresses and phone numbers. A breach at car-sharing service Times Car also exposed images of driver’s licenses. In response, financial regulators warned banks against using the licenses for identity verification.