Maker of motorcycles and other equipment breached
Japanese juggernaut Kawasaki Heavy Industries is the latest company to fall victim to a security breach. The company, which employs more than 35,000 people and has offices all over the globe recently disclosed the breach to its customers.
The company discovered that one or more unauthorized parties accessed a company server in Japan from an office in Thailand on June 11, 2020.
Multiple sites were found to be breached
Kawasaki's IT security staff halted all communications between the two sites the same day the discovery was made. A subsequent investigation revealed that other unauthorized access from other overseas sites had occurred between June 11 through July 8, which prompted the company to halt communications between those sites as well.
Communications were restored on November 30 once the investigation had been concluded and the company implemented new security protocols. They then conducted a security audit of more than 30,000 terminals on the corporate network.
Kawasaki not the only Japanese firm breached
A spokesman for the company stressed that although no evidence was found that any data was exfiltrated from corporate servers, it is possible that some information was stolen. However, if it was, then the attack was conducted with highly advanced technology that left no trace.
Kawasaki is hardly the only Japanese firm to have been beached this year. Other victims in 2020 include Kobe Steel, Pasco, Mitsubishi Electric, and NEC. Sadly, they certainly won't be the last, given that the frequency of hacking attacks is likely to continue increasing for the foreseeable future.
My perspective
In any case, there's not much to be done except to be aware that if you have had business dealings with Kawasaki or any of the other Japanese firms mentioned here, it's at least possible that whatever data your business might have shared with those companies could have been compromised.
~ As Hill Street Blues' Sgt. Esterhaus always advised: "Hey, let's be careful out there!" ~
By Denis Wilson
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