The latest Panasonic data breach has affected the company's file server, possibly exposing the data of its business partners as well as its employees.
Panasonic Data Breach 2021
In a statement released by Panasonic, the company revealed that its network was hacked illegally accessed by a third party on November 11. In addition to this, an internal investigation unveiled that some data on a file server was accessed during the attack.
Panasonic spokeswoman Dannea DeLisser acknowledged that the Panasonic data breach has occurred between June 22 and November 3 and that the illegal access was discovered on November 11, per Tech Crunch.
"After detecting the unauthorized access, the company immediately reported the incident to the relevant authorities and implemented security countermeasures, including steps to prevent external access to the network," Panasonic furthered in their statement.
Moreover, Panasonic asserted to people that they are presently cooperating with a professional third-party company to examine the data leak. In addition to this, it also aims to determine if the Panasonic data leak impacted customers' personal information and sensitive data linked to social infrastructure.
In its closing remark, the Japanese multinational conglomerate company stated that "Panasonic would like to express its sincerest apologies for any concern or inconvenience resulting from this incident."
Meanwhile, NHK reported that the infected computers had details concerning Panasonic's business associates and technologies, citing a ransomware incident involving a subsidiary of the company in November that also exposed business data.
On the other hand, Panasonic told Mainichi on Friday that "We cannot predict whether it will affect our business or business performance, but we cannot deny the possibility of a serious incident."
Aside from the business partner's data, The Record also reported that the Panasonic data breach may have also affected employees' information.
While no other information is currently available, most of Japan's major tech corporations have been subjected to network breaches by Chinese state-sponsored espionage groups in the last three years, per The Record. With that being stated, there is also a possibility that they could be the leading suspects in this event as well; however it is still unverified as of the moment.
Tech Crunch added that Panasonic India was targeted by a ransomware attack less than a year ago, leading towards the data breaches of 4 gigabytes of data, including bank information and email addresses. It also comes in the midst of a surge of cyberattacks aimed at Japanese technology firms.
Last year, hackers targeted NEC and Mitsubishi Electric, while Olympus was forced to shut down operations in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa after being hit with the BlackMatter ransomware.
Data Breach
For those who are curious to know about what data breach is, Tech Radar stated that a data breach happens when confidential information is compromised or disclosed by an individual, an organization or hackers in the market.
Any form of data, whether accidentally or deliberately, can be disclosed in this method.
The said data could include credit card details, social security or national insurance numbers, health information, customer lists and trade secrets
A data breach, whether it involves private or business information, may be disastrous. It may not only result in costly litigation for businesses but might also ruin consumer confidence and loyalty.
