Japan’s largest taxi operator Nihon Kotsu hit by cyber attack, forcing systems to shut down

Japan’s largest taxi operator confirms July 11 malware attack that forced shutdown of its IT systems and disrupted dispatch and reservation services
Nihon Kotsu isolated networks, notified authorities and brought in third-party experts; customers were advised to use alternative taxi apps during the outage
No data breach has been confirmed, but Nihon Kotsu warned that it may disclose and notify affected parties if evidence of personal information exposure emerges

Japan’s largest taxi operator, Nihon Kotsu, has confirmed that it has suffered a cyber attack which forced it to temporarily shut down parts of its IT infrastructure.

In a statement published on the company’s Japanese website, Nihon Kotsu said the attack occurred in the early morning of July 11 – on a Saturday, when unnamed threat actors infected its devices with malware.

“We have recently discovered that our internal systems have been exposed to unauthorized external access (malware infection),” reads the machine-translated statement. “We deeply regret the great inconvenience and concern this incident has caused our customers, business partners and all related parties.”

Services are not available

As soon as it discovered the intrusion, Nihon Kotsu did what most companies do—shut down its network to prevent further damage, notified relevant law enforcement and data protection authorities, and brought in third-party experts to assess the damage and help with the repairs.

The shutdown means some customer-facing services are unavailable: “As a result, the rental car web ordering and reservation management system, telephone taxi dispatch service and some internal systems are temporarily unavailable,” the company said.

It advised its customers to use another taxi app, which allows users to choose a taxi service of their liking.

So far, there is no evidence of any data exfiltration or leaks to the dark web. However, the company left it as an option.

“At this time, no information leak has been confirmed, but if any leak or possibility of personal information about customers or related parties is recently discovered, we will immediately make official announcements and contact the affected parties individually in accordance with laws and regulations,” the company concluded.

Nihon Kotsu is Japan’s largest taxi operator, employing more than 18,000 people and operating a fleet of more than 8,500 taxis and more than 2,000 chauffeured vehicles.

Via Bleeping Computer