Japanese entertainment group Nippon Columbia hit with malware, affecting more than 8.7 million customers and employees' personal data, according to karaoke system maker Daiichi Kosho. The company asked its customers to be cautious, but it is still unclear if their personal information was stolen or leaked.
Daiichi Kosho, Japan’s biggest karaoke company, owns 521 karaoke places and provides services for the well-known chain of Big Echo. They rely on Nippon Columbia Group (NCG) to provide customer information.
NCG’s businesses range from music creation, video and game software development and distribution to artist management, making it an important supplier for the karaoke entertainment sector.
The issue was raised when NCG notified Daiichi Kosho of the incident on October 5 when the malware was found on one of the staff member's computers, which was then isolated the next day. The company then proceeded to reset all the passwords and other authentication methods and investigate the incident to determine its scope and origin.
According to Daiichi Kosho's statement, the affected information includes approximately 8,631,000 customers and 93,000 employees of the company, and it may include the full name, gender, date of birth, email address, and phone number of the affected individuals.
BIG ECHO, MEGA BIG, Karaoke CLUB DAM, Banana Club, B-GARAGE and DK Dining entertainments' users should be particularly wary of the security breach, as it could affect their data the most.
Daiichi Kosho reiterated that their information was not at risk and that the data contained in the breach does not include the passwords. Additionally, the company stated that there was no suspicion of unlawful interference with customer loyalty points.
On the other hand, they are still not certain if the information was stolen or if it was leaked online. They are investigating the breach to find out if the data was shared, what the scope of the problem was, and if the information was shared.
The latest statement did not mention anything else about the possible leak.
Customers are advised to protect themselves from scams, deception, and unlawful access to their personal information. They should be wary of strange emails, text messages, and phone numbers and avoid providing any personal and financial information. If the crooks managed to collect and compile the data of these users, it would be easy for them to engage in phishing schemes and similar scams.
BleepingComputer, as of the time of publishing this article, has not been able to find any official statement from Nippon Columbia Group about the incident. They mentioned that they contacted the company for an official comment, and they are still waiting for the response.
Until an official statement is issued, the possible data theft remains an issue, as it raises several questions about the safety of the companies' data and the safety of customers' personal information.
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