Fujitsu confirms cyber attack, fears possible data leak
Late last week, Japanese technology giant Fujitsu reported that it had suffered a cyber attack that stole sensitive personal and customer information.
In a press release published on Fujitsu’s website on Friday (and machine translated from Japanese), the company said it malware on “multiple work computers,” forcing the organization to disconnect the compromised endpoints.
After an internal investigation, the company found that “files containing personal information and customer information could be legally deleted.”
No evidence of abuse
Unfortunately, Fujitsu’s announcement was short and missing crucial information. Ny Breaking have reached out with additional questions and will update the article accordingly.
So far, the company has not said which files were taken, so there is no indication that they contain payment information, phone numbers, Social Security numbers, or other sensitive information that could be used in identity theft and similar fraudulent activities.
Although Fujitsu said that both “personal and customer information” was collected, it has not been confirmed whether the files belong to employees (current or former), business partners, or someone else entirely. There is also no information on exactly how many people were affected by the breach.
Finally, Fujitsu has yet to reveal whether this was a ransomware attack or a simple data collection, or who the perpetrators were. Ransomware groups usually demand payment in exchange for keeping the data private, so it’s possible the attackers are asking for millions in cryptocurrencies.
It has been confirmed that Fujitsu has reported the incident to the Personal Information Protection Commission (Japan’s data watchdog) and that it is investigating whether the data has surfaced somewhere on the (dark) web. So far there is no evidence of data misuse, the company confirms.
“We sincerely apologize for the great concern and inconvenience this has caused to everyone involved,” the press release concludes.
According to 2021 data, Fujitsu is the sixth largest IT services company in the world by annual revenue, and the largest in Japan.