Casio says customers in 148 countries affected by breach

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Thousands of customers of Japanese technology maker Casio had their information exposed in a data breach at one of its software subsidiaries last week.

In a lengthy explanation this week, the company said hackers accessed its ClassPad.net educational web application, leaking personal information from customers in 148 countries.

“On the evening of Wednesday, October 11, when the manager attempted to work in the development environment, it was discovered that a database outage had occurred and the company assessed the situation,” said the company. explain.

“As the company continued to analyze the situation, it was further confirmed that on the evening of Thursday, October 12, the personal information of some residents of countries other than Japan was accessed.”

The company did not say how many people were affected, but said more than 120,000 pieces of information were leaked from 1,108 educational customers and an undisclosed number of individuals.

The information disclosed includes customer names, email addresses, country of residence, order details, service usage information and payment methods. Credit card information was not included in the breach.

Casio said 91,921 “items” belonging to customers in Japan were leaked, while 35,049 items belonging to customers in other countries were exposed. The company did not respond to requests for clarification on what it meant by “item.” The notice states that Casio will update the figures if results change in the future.

Casio reported profits of more than $2 billion last year as one of the largest producers of calculators, cameras, musical instruments, watches and more. The company has a long history in the industry and was one of the first producers of digital watches, but its sales have declined over the past decade.

Several of Japan’s largest automakers have faced attacks in 2023, with giant YKK zipper confirming a ransomware attack in June and the Yamaha company announcing his own incident in July.

Ransomware gangs also attacked Seiko watchmaker And Eisai pharmaceutical company. In January, millions of Japanese customers of two major insurance companies saw their personal information leak after a breach.

‘Operational error’

The notice does not specify whether Casio identified the hackers.

The situation is attributed to network security settings in the development environment that were disabled “due to an operational system error by the department in charge and insufficient operational management.”

“Currently, all databases in the development environment targeted by the attack are inaccessible to people outside the development environment. Casio reported the incident to the Japanese Personal Information Protection Commission and JUAS (the “PrivacyMark” certification body) on Monday, October 16,” the company said.

“Casio will continue to consult and engage an external security organization to conduct further internal investigations, analyze root causes, and design appropriate countermeasures in response to this incident,” the company said. He also plans to “retain an external law firm” while cooperating with police in the investigation.

The company plans to contact all customers affected by the incident.

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Jonathan Greig

Jonathan Greig is a breaking news reporter at Recorded Future News. Jonathan has worked as a journalist around the world since 2014. Before returning to New York, he worked for media outlets in South Africa, Jordan and Cambodia. He previously covered cybersecurity at ZDNet and TechRepublic.

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