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The story
On October 5, Daiwa Securities announced that a server belonging to an outside firm it contracts for customer inquiry handling suffered unauthorized access, potentially leaking around 220,000 pieces of data — including names and account numbers — for roughly 110,000 customers. Around the same time, Osaka Metropolitan University was also hit by a ransomware attack, triggering a major system outage that is still ongoing, with the personal information of more than 130,000 students and alumni possibly exposed. Both organizations say no secondary damage has been confirmed so far, but on the forum, speculation spread that “the attackers may have started using AI,” alongside suspicion over the contractor’s management practices and the timing of the back-to-back leak announcements.
On the 5th, Daiwa Securities announced that a server at an outside contractor had suffered unauthorized access, potentially leaking around 220,000 pieces of data. This includes personal information such as names, email addresses, and account numbers for roughly 110,000 customers. The company says no secondary damage, such as fraudulent trades using the leaked information, has been confirmed.
According to the announcement, “Scala Communications” (Tokyo), which handles management of inquiries submitted online, suffered unauthorized access between the 2nd and 3rd. However, the potentially leaked information reportedly cannot be used to access securities accounts or make trades.
At Osaka Metropolitan University (Osaka City), a major system failure occurred on the 2nd of this month, and the university announced on the 5th that the failure appears to have been caused by a cyberattack using ransomware, a type of virus that demands a ransom. As of the 5th, the outage is still largely ongoing with no recovery timeline in sight. The system holds the personal information of more than 130,000 students and alumni, which may have been exposed.
Source: news.yahoo.co.jp / Original article here
What people said
And anywhere that didn't plug the holes they should have is getting wiped out completely.
Guess it really is just AI hitting everything indiscriminately, huh
If you let AI auto-attack, it's naturally gonna pick off the weakest spots first
So it's China, then?
Rather than "it's AI," isn't it more like the whole phase has shifted?
It used to be cottage-industry stuff, but now some deep-pocketed backer got involved
and the bandwidth, gear, and manpower all got 10x'd or something…
Unauthorized access to GMO's "infoQ" — up to 950,000 members' info leaked, 2.87 million yen worth of points fraudulently exchanged [Middle-Aged Men's Club★]
https://asahi.5ch.io/test/read.cgi/newsplus/1791254484/
Feels like this one's actually a separate breach. Like "might as well disclose it now while we're at it" timing.
Data with absolutely zero value
Osaka Metropolitan University is the merger result of the old city and prefectural universities
Far from F-rank — it's ranked alongside Kobe University or Tsukuba University
Guess you just don't know about Osaka Metropolitan University lol
Anyone who got into Osaka University or above definitely knows it — this comment's basically outing your own low exam score lol
For science programs it's actually harder to get into than Kyushu University, one of the old Imperial universities
It only offers a mid-term entrance exam and is on par with Osaka University — is that just not known outside western Japan?
Apparently in certain circles, login credentials have been getting bought and sold lately
Assume your credentials WILL get exposed — so either change them after every use or change them daily
For an individual, that's really all you can do
For a company, it's about managing every employee, every transaction, the entire supply chain
However solid the main organization is, if there's a hole somewhere out on a branch, that's where they get in
customers included
If we announce it now, it won't stand out so much, aru~ (mimicking a stereotyped "Chinese-accented" speech pattern often used in Japanese jokes/memes, implying a jab that China is behind it)
It's because if you spill the news at exactly this moment, you avoid catching all the concentrated flak.
Still pulling FUD even at a time like this, lol
The attackers will just rip off that same tech and cook up a new legendary Pokémon with it, lol
then once you're targeted, nowhere's really safe anymore, is it
Guess it wasn't actually high-level, then
These days you need AI-powered security or it just won't cut it
I mean, it's one of the "Big Three" brokerages after all.
Only the three megabanks are left standing now… the last fortress
Well, I guess it falling too is only a matter of time, lol
The Daiwa Securities leak came from their outside contractor.
Not from the brokerage itself.
Digital Minister: "Do it yourself"
It'd be an AI battle where defense is like a 1 and offense is like a 10
The attacking side has the overwhelming advantage
Background and key points of this story
The number of leak reports filed with Japan’s Personal Information Protection Commission has been rising year after year, and what stands out about this Daiwa Securities case is that the breach happened not at the brokerage itself but at “Scala Communications,” the outside contractor handling its inquiry management — with the leaked data alone reportedly not enough to access accounts or make trades. Several commenters on the forum floated the theory that “the attackers may have started using AI,” and the idea that generative AI is automating and escalating attacks is a point actually raised by the National Police Agency and private security firms as well. Meanwhile, the ransomware damage at Osaka Metropolitan University still has no recovery timeline even days after it happened — and the thread didn’t touch on how universities, as organizations, tend to struggle to centrally manage contractors and huge numbers of devices and accounts, which is part of why this kind of damage tends to drag on.
*This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Breaking News+) thread “String of personal data leaks: Daiwa Securities exposes 220,000 records including account numbers for 110,000 customers… Osaka Metropolitan University leak includes student ID photos of 130,000+ people.”
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