Breach at Sony's Japanese ISP So-net exposes 2.5 million customer records

[Voyager66]

Another major Japanese company has been hit by a data breach. BleepingComputer reports that Sony Network Communications, the Sony Group subsidiary that runs the So-net internet service, has confirmed an unauthorised party accessed its member database

The intrusion happened on 19 October and was detected four days later. The company shut down the affected servers and blocked external connections, announced the incident on 27 October and reported it to Japan's Personal Information Protection Commission

In total, 2,585,481 records were exposed, made up of 2,141,986 So-net records and 443,495 records from the plala service. The data includes names, phone numbers, email addresses, user IDs, dates of birth, gender and internet connection IDs. Separately, 54,401 email addresses were exposed along with account passwords, and those users are being told to change them. No bank or card details were taken

The plala records affect NTT Docomo, which uses Sony for part of its Docomo Hikari broadband service. Docomo says all current Hikari customers and those who cancelled in the previous six months are affected, and it has warned about phishing messages impersonating its loyalty scheme and a Universal Studios Japan ticket campaign. No misuse had been confirmed as of 27 October, and the cause has not been disclosed

This follows a run of attacks on Japanese companies, and the Japanese government reportedly held urgent meetings this week. Exposed passwords are the most serious part, especially for people who reuse them elsewhere. Anyone affected should change passwords and watch out for convincing phishing emails

Why do you think Japanese companies are being targeted so heavily right now? And how should customers protect themselves after breaches like this?

Sony ISP subsidiary data breach exposes 2.5 million customer recordswww.bleepingcomputer.com