Seiko Says Black Cat Ransomware Exposes 60,000 Data Items
The esteemed Japanese watch manufacturer, Seiko, announced on Wednesday that a ransomware incident first reported this summer resulted in the exposure of approximately 60,000 personal data entries of its clients, employees, business collaborators, and job applicants.
The corporation disclosed that they’ve concluded a comprehensive review of this egregious breach in collaboration with external cybersecurity specialists. The compromised data was housed within various business divisions such as Seiko Group Corporation (SGC), Seiko Watch Corporation (SWC), and Seiko Instruments Inc. (SII).
In a solemn statement, Seiko conveyed, “Seiko Group Corporation has confirmed that on July 28th of this year, the Company suffered a possible data breach. It appears that some as-yet-unidentified party or parties gained unauthorized access to at least one of our servers. Subsequently, on August 2nd, we commissioned a team of external cybersecurity experts to investigate and assess the situation.”
In August, the nefarious cybercrime syndicate, Black Cat (also known as AlphV), claimed responsibility for the incident. Shortly thereafter, Seiko confirmed it as a ransomware assault.
While Seiko refrained from elaborating on the specifics of the exposed items, they categorized the leaked information as follows:
- Client information from SWC, encompassing names, addresses, contact numbers, and/or email addresses. However, they assured that credit card details remained secure.
- Contact details of business counterparts engaged in transactions with SGC, SWC, and/or SII, including names, corporate affiliations, positions, company addresses, and/or corporate electronic contacts.
- Information of aspirants seeking employment with SGC and/or SWC, inclusive of their educational backgrounds. Details regarding current and former SGC employees, mainly their names and/or email addresses, were also exposed.
Seiko solemnly affirmed their ongoing investigation into the ransomware incursion and bolstered measures in both policy and systems to preemptively thwart similar future breaches.
Concurrently, Casio, another eminent Japanese watch enterprise, acknowledged last week a data breach at one of its software subsidiaries earlier this month.
