Nikkei Inc., the Japanese financial news and media conglomerate (owner of the *Financial Times*), suffered a major cyber breach in **September 2024** after an employee’s infected personal computer led to stolen Slack credentials. Attackers exploited this to access Nikkei’s internal Slack workspace, exposing **sensitive data of 17,368 individuals**, including employees and business partners. Compromised information included **names, email addresses, and chat histories**, though no journalistic sources or reporting data were leaked. The breach mirrors a growing trend where criminals leverage stolen data for extortion rather than deploying ransomware. Nikkei responded with password resets, voluntary disclosure to Japan’s Personal Information Protection Commission, and a public commitment to strengthening data security. This incident follows a **2019 BEC scam** where Nikkei lost **$29 million**, highlighting persistent vulnerabilities in its cybersecurity posture. Experts noted the attack’s sophistication, as valid credentials bypassed traditional security tools (SIEM/NDR), emphasizing the need for behavioral anomaly detection.
Source: https://hackread.com/nikkei-data-breach-hackers-steal-data-slack-messages/
TPRM report: https://www.rankiteo.com/company/nikkei
"id": "nik1702217110625",
"linkid": "nikkei",
"type": "Breach",
"date": "6/2019",
"severity": "85",
"impact": "4",
"explanation": "Attack with significant impact with customers data leaks"{'affected_entities': [{'customers_affected': '17,368 (Employees and Business '
'Partners)',
'industry': ['Financial News', 'Publishing'],
'location': 'Japan (Global Operations)',
'name': 'Nikkei Inc.',
'size': "Large (One of the World's Largest Media "
'Corporations)',
'type': 'Media Corporation'}],
'attack_vector': ['Malware Infection',
'Stolen Credentials',
'Compromised Slack Account'],
'data_breach': {'data_exfiltration': True,
'file_types_exposed': ['Slack Messages/Logs', 'User Profiles'],
'number_of_records_exposed': '17,368',
'personally_identifiable_information': ['Names',
'Email Addresses'],
'sensitivity_of_data': ['Moderate (No Journalistic Sources or '
'Highly Sensitive Financial Data '
'Compromised)'],
'type_of_data_compromised': ['Personally Identifiable '
'Information (PII)',
'Corporate Communication Data']},
'date_detected': '2024-09',
'description': 'Nikkei Inc., a major Japanese financial news and media group, '
'experienced a significant data breach after attackers gained '
'unauthorized access to its internal Slack workspace through a '
'stolen employee account. The breach exposed sensitive '
'personal information of over 17,000 individuals, including '
'names, email addresses, and chat histories. The incident was '
'discovered in September 2024 and traced back to malware '
"infecting an employee's personal computer, which allowed "
'credential theft. Nikkei responded with containment measures, '
'including password resets, and voluntarily disclosed the '
'incident to Japanese authorities despite no legal obligation '
'to do so.',
'impact': {'brand_reputation_impact': ['Moderate to High (Given Global Reach '
'and Previous BEC Incident in 2019)'],
'data_compromised': ['Names',
'Email Addresses',
'Slack Chat Histories'],
'identity_theft_risk': ['Moderate (Exposed PII Could Be Used for '
'Phishing or Fraud)'],
'operational_impact': ['Disruption to Internal Communication',
'Potential Trust Erosion with Business '
'Partners'],
'systems_affected': ['Slack Workspace']},
'initial_access_broker': {'data_sold_on_dark_web': ['Potential (Not '
'Confirmed, but Stolen '
'Data Could Be Leveraged '
'for Extortion or Sale)'],
'entry_point': ["Employee's Personal Computer "
'(Malware Infection)'],
'high_value_targets': ['Slack Workspace (Internal '
'Communication Data)']},
'investigation_status': 'Ongoing (Root Cause Analysis and Remediation in '
'Progress)',
'lessons_learned': ['Authorized but anomalous user activity (e.g., mass data '
'scraping) is difficult to detect with traditional '
'SIEM/NDR tools due to encrypted traffic and valid '
'credentials.',
'Initial malware infection was a precursor to credential '
'theft, highlighting the need for endpoint security and '
'behavioral analytics.',
'Media organizations are increasingly targeted for '
'non-ransomware data extortion (e.g., threats to leak '
'stolen data).',
'Voluntary transparency can mitigate reputational damage '
'even when not legally required.'],
'motivation': ['Data Theft for Extortion',
'Potential Sale of Stolen Data on Dark Web'],
'post_incident_analysis': {'corrective_actions': ['Mandatory MFA for all '
'corporate accounts.',
'Deployment of UEBA tools '
'to detect unusual user '
'behavior.',
'Enhanced endpoint '
'detection and response '
'(EDR) solutions.',
'Review of SIEM/NDR '
'configurations to improve '
'detection of encrypted '
'exfiltration.',
'Employee training on '
'recognizing '
'phishing/malware threats.'],
'root_causes': ['Inadequate endpoint protection '
'leading to malware infection.',
'Lack of MFA for Slack accounts, '
'enabling credential stuffing.',
'Insufficient behavioral '
'monitoring to detect anomalous '
'data access by authorized users.',
'Encrypted traffic hindered '
'payload inspection by NDR '
'tools.']},
'ransomware': {'data_exfiltration': True},
'recommendations': ['Implement Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) for all '
'critical systems, including Slack.',
'Deploy User and Entity Behavior Analytics (UEBA) to '
'detect anomalous actions by authorized users.',
'Enhance endpoint security to prevent malware infections '
'that lead to credential theft.',
'Conduct regular red-team exercises to test detection '
'capabilities for lateral movement and data exfiltration.',
'Expand SIEM rules to flag unusual data access patterns '
'(e.g., bulk downloads of chat histories).',
'Evaluate Network Detection and Response (NDR) solutions '
'capable of inspecting encrypted traffic metadata for '
'anomalies.'],
'references': [{'source': 'Hackread.com'},
{'source': 'Nikkei Inc. Official Statement'},
{'source': 'DeepTempo Research (Mayank Kumar, Founding AI '
'Engineer)'}],
'regulatory_compliance': {'regulatory_notifications': ['Voluntary '
'Notification to '
'Personal Information '
'Protection Commission '
'(Japan)']},
'response': {'communication_strategy': ['Voluntary Disclosure to Personal '
'Information Protection Commission '
'(Japan)',
'Public Statement Emphasizing No '
'Leakage of Journalistic Sources'],
'containment_measures': ['Password Resets for Affected Accounts',
'Access Revocation for Compromised '
'Credentials'],
'enhanced_monitoring': ['Planned (To Detect Anomalous User '
'Behavior)'],
'incident_response_plan_activated': True,
'remediation_measures': ['Strengthening Personal Information '
'Management',
'Enhanced Monitoring for Unusual '
'Activity']},
'stakeholder_advisories': ['Internal Communication to Employees and Business '
'Partners About the Breach and Mitigation Steps'],
'title': 'Nikkei Inc. Data Breach via Compromised Slack Account',
'type': ['Data Breach', 'Unauthorized Access', 'Credential Theft'],
'vulnerability_exploited': ['Weak Endpoint Security',
'Lack of Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)',
'Insufficient Behavioral Monitoring for '
'Authorized Users']}