[BreachExchange] Hackers Target Iconic Japan’s Toshiba Rival Hoya With Ransomware

[Destry Winant]

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/hackers-target-iconic-japan-s-toshiba-rival-hoya-with-ransomware-1.1593280

(Bloomberg) -- A group of hackers executed a ransomware attack on Hoya
Corp, marking the second successful attack suffered by the Japanese firm in
two years.

”We can confirm that Hoya Vision Care US has experienced a cyberattack.
Based on our initial forensics, the disruption appears to have been limited
to our United States systems,” a Hoya spokesperson said. “After identifying
the threat, we quickly took action to contain it and contacted law
enforcement. The company has engaged external experts to determine the
nature and scope of this event. We will provide updates as more information
becomes available.”

Hoya, named after the West Tokyo neighborhood where it was founded in 1941,
is a glassmaker with about 37,000 employees worldwide and about $5 billion
in annual revenue. The company gets last year 65% of its sales from contact
lenses and glasses, while the rest comes Information technology devices and
services such glass substrate used in the manufacturing of semiconductors
and hard disk drives, according to 2020 company’s report.

The hacker group called Astro Team said on its blog last week that it
targeted Hoya servers and stole about 300 gigabytes of confidential
corporate data including finance, production, email messages, passwords and
safety reports.

In 2019, Hoya suffered a major cyberattack, infectong over 100 computers
and forcing the company to shut down its factories for three days.

”Ransomware attacks are more disruptive than ever and companies not only
have to deal with the encryption of their data, but also the theft and
possible release of it,” Brett Callow, a threat analyst for Emsisoft said
in an interview. It’s an increasingly common problem with more than 1,300
public and private sector organizations globally having had their data
stolen and posted online last year, he added.

In late 2019 Hoya offered to spend as much as 147.7 billion yen ($1.36
billion) for NuFlare Technology Inc., seeking control of the Toshiba Corp.
affiliate in a rare hostile takeover bid among Japanese companies. Despite
it’s higher offer, Hoya was beat by Toshiba that in January of last year
succeeded in its tender offer to buy out other shareholders of NuFlare and
take the unit private.
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