Panasonic says hackers accessed personal data of job candidates

Japanese tech giant Panasonic has confirmed that hackers accessed personal information belonging to job candidates and interns during a November cyberattack.

At the time of the data breach, which the company first confirmed on November 26, the company was unable to say whether hackers had accessed any sensitive information. However, in an update published on January 7, Panasonic said some personal information relating to candidates who applied for employment or participated in internships at certain divisions of the company was accessed during the incident. Panasonic said it was notifying those affected.

When reached, Panasonic spokesperson Dannea DeLisser declined to say how many people were impacted and the nature of the information accessed.

Panasonic’s update also confirmed that the data breach — which began June 22 and ended on November 3, before being detected on November 11 — saw the as-yet-unnamed hackers obtain files containing unspecified “business-related information” provided by business partners, as well as information about business partner personnel.

The findings of the company’s internal investigation, which was carried out with the help of an external security advisor, confirmed that a third party illegally accessed a file server in Japan via the server of an overseas subsidiary. Panasonic says that after detecting the unauthorized access, it “immediately implemented additional security countermeasures,” including strengthening access controls from overseas locations, resetting relevant passwords and strengthening server access monitoring.

Panasonic said it was strengthening its security measures to prevent a repeat attack.

The November data breach that hit Panasonic came just months after the company’s Indian subsidiary fell victim to a ransomware attack that saw hackers leak 4 gigabytes of data, including financial information and email addresses.

Panasonic confirms data breach after hackers access internal network