LY Corporation Suffers Data Breach Impacting Line Messenger Users
LY Corporation, the parent company of Line Messenger, has reported unauthorized access to its systems, leading to the leakage of hundreds of thousands of records pertaining to users, partners, and employees. In a notification sent to affected clients on November 27, the company disclosed that unauthorized individuals accessed their servers through the NAVER Cloud Corporation system, owned by a subsidiary.
The Line application was launched in Japan in 2011. This popular Japanese app offers video and text chat services, free IP voice calls, and video conferencing. LINE is widely used not only in Japan but also in Taiwan, Thailand, and Indonesia, boasting over 176 million active users monthly worldwide.
On October 9, a virus infected an employee’s computer at a subsidiary, and by October 17, LY Corporation, managing the Line application, determined a “high possibility” of unauthorized external access to the application’s systems.
The attackers accessed hundreds of thousands of records containing user, employee, and business partner data. The exposed user data from the Line application included:
- User voice call activities;
- Details of conversations (including the country, gender, age group, and operating system of senders and recipients);
- Content posting details, including times and dates;
- The total number of subscribers/friends of users;
- Start and end times of published videos.
As of November 27, the compromised data includes information on users, business partners, and employees, totaling 302,569 user records, 86,105 partner records, and 51,353 employee and staff records, including names, employment book numbers, and email addresses. The company asserts that the leaked data did not include information on bank accounts, credit cards, or chats within the Line application.
LY Corporation urges all affected parties to remain vigilant against fraudulent messages and phishing attempts. Moving forward, the company intends to engage external organizations for auditing and enhancing security measures.
