Japan government servers hacked and data stolen

Fujitsu, an IT services firm from Japan was recently targeted by cybercriminals stealing sensitive data belonging to government offices says a report released by NHK- a Japan-based media resource.

Sources reporting to Cybersecurity Insiders say that the data belonging to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport, Cabinet secretariat, and Tourism were accessed & siphoned by hackers.

Reports are in that critical air traffic data belonging to Narita Airport and those belonging to the Land and transport ministry was also accessed and stolen by hackers.

Over 76,000 email addresses belonging to employees and business partners and some confidential content from emails belonging to the Defense Ministry was also accessed by hackers says a source from Cabinet Secretariat’s Cybersecurity Centre.

Fujitsu offers software as a service feature through its ProjectWEB platform and more than 76% of government offices operating in Japan are said to be relying on the Information Technology services offered by the Tokyo-based Multinational technological firm.

A forensic investigation involving a team of experts has been launched by Fujitsu to determine the scope of the attack and its impact on business. And till then the services on the Fujitsu cloud services platform have been suspended.

Kato Katsunobu, the Chief Cabinet Secretary of Japan has confirmed the incident on Fujistu and assured that more details about the attack will be revealed after the official probe gets completed.

Note 1- In a ransomware attack, hackers first steal data and then encrypt the database until a ransom is paid. It is a kind of double extortion tactic where hackers sell the stolen data if the victim fails to pay a ransom in exchange for a decryption key.

Note 2- Fujitsu did not reveal any information about the variant of cyber attack.