Casio's October Ransomware Attack Leads to Personal Data Leak

Japanese electronics giant Casio recently disclosed details of a ransomware attack that compromised the personal data of 8,500 individuals.

Casio ransomware attack and its fallout

The incident, which occurred on Oct. 5 last year, exposed the sensitive data of employees, business partners, and a smaller subset of customers.

Threat actors employed a phishing scheme to infiltrate Casio’s networks, leading to widespread IT outages. Five days later, the Underground ransomware gang claimed responsibility for the ransomware attack.

The perpetrators tried to extort Casio, threatening to leak financial records, sensitive company documents, project data, and employee information unless a ransom was paid.

Full scope of breach revealed

The company confirmed that the data had indeed been stolen in the attack but didn’t say how many people were impacted by the breach.

While the entire scope of the breach was initially unclear, the company’s investigation revealed the full extent of the exposure. The compromised data includes:

• Employee data (6,456): Full names, email addresses, employee numbers, genders, affiliations, family information, birthdates, home addresses, taxpayer ID numbers, phone numbers and system account details
• Business partner data (1,931): Full names, email addresses, phone numbers, company details, and ID card information
• Customer data (91): Full names, phone numbers, delivery addresses, purchase dates, and product details
• Other leaked data: Sensitive company documents, including contracts, invoices, and meeting information

Casio’s response and next steps

In the wake of the incident, Casio emphasized its commitment to transparency and safeguarding impacted individuals, offering affected parties personalized notifications about the breach and steps they can take to protect themselves.

Some employees have reported receiving unsolicited emails potentially related to the breach; however, Casio offered reassurance that there is no evidence of secondary damage to partners, employees, or customers.

Customer databases remain untouched, says Casio

The company also clarified that databases containing customer data and credit card information remained secure and unaffected by the incident.

Casio said it took a principled stand against ransom payments.

“Following consultation with law enforcement agencies, outside counsel, and security experts, Casio has not responded to any unreasonable demands from the ransomware group that carried out the unauthorized access,” the company stated.

Preparation for data breaches

Unfortunately, data breaches are still common. Despite the best practices of companies and customers alike, threat actors manage to bypass security mechanisms and exploit vulnerable infrastructures, exfiltrating, encrypting, and leaking sensitive information.

However, specialized software like Bitdefender Digital Identity Protection can help you stay prepared for grim scenarios like Casio’s data breach. It constantly monitors the public and the dark web for your data, identifying even traces of services you no longer use, and instantly notifies you of any identified breaches that could put you at risk. It also gives you simple, 1-click action buttons to instantly patch any identified weak spots in your digital footprint.