Askul Suffers 740,000 Sets of Data Breached after Cyberattack

Tokyo, Dec. 13 (Jiji Press)–Japanese office supplies retailer Askul Corp. said that a ransomware cyberattack discovered in October led to the leakage of about 740,000 sets of data concerning its individual customers, corporate clients and employees. Of the total, about 590,000 sets of data were linked to its office supplies sales service for corporate customers, while roughly 130,000 were related to its “Lohaco” e-commerce service for individual customers, the company said Friday. Also, the company said that no leakage of individual customers’ credit card information has been confirmed and that it has not paid a ransom to the attackers. This is the first time Askul has disclosed the number of breached sets of data. The company said it reported the confirmed data leak to the Personal Information Protection Commission on Friday and has begun contacting affected customers and business partners individually. Askul said devices suspected of being infected were either discarded or had their systems reinstalled, adding that “there are no signs of any remaining threat.” The company confirmed the cyberattack on Oct. 19 and halted order intake and shipping operations. It has been restoring systems in stages and plans to resume the operation of its logistics system on Wednesday. Ryohin Keikaku Co., which runs the Muji household goods chain, said Friday it will fully resume online sales on Monday after suspending them following the cyberattack on Askul, whose logistics unit handles part of its distribution. Ryohin Keikaku partially resumed order processing on Dec. 1. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]