Zeon investigating cyber-security breach and possible leakage of data

Tokyo – Zeon Corp. has reported a cyber-attack that could have compromised the security of data held on 13,434 employees and business partners.

The Japanese group said ‘an outside attacker’ accessed its server on 16 Aug and “may have leaked [personal information] to the outside.”

Apologising for the incident, Zeon said it immediately contacted its security vendor after detecting the external attack.

“In a subsequent investigation… evidence of unauthorised access to our account management system was confirmed,” added its 23 Aug statement.

Of the potentially leaked data, it said, over 8,200 belonged to customers and suppliers, while nearly 5,200 employee accounts were also accessed.

Zeon said it would send an email dated 24 Aug to inform those whose personal information may have been leaked.

Furthermore, as personal information of employees may have been compromised, Zeon called for ‘caution’ about potential spam or phishing emails.

"We take this situation very seriously, and with the assistance of an external cybersecurity firm, we will continue to investigate how the incident could have occurred," said Zeon.

"We deeply regret any inconvenience and concern this may have caused and will spare no effort to prevent it from happening again," the group concluded.