Hackers Claim Breach of Senior Employee Account at Viz Media

The CyberNews cybersecurity news website reported on October 30 that hackers claimed to have stolen more than 250GB of corporate data from a vice-president at U.S. manga publisher Viz Media.

CyberNews stated the hackers announced the alleged hack on an “underground data leak forum that’s often utilized by initial access brokers, a subset of cybercriminals who trade access keys to companies.” A screenshot from the data leak forum that CyberNews posted lists that the access is to a “Google Account” associated with Viz Media. The screenshot also states “Price is min 5 figs,” likely referring to the asking price for the sale of the information. CyberNews stated only some of the alleged stolen data was posted online.

Another screenshot posted by CyberNews allegedly shows access the hackers have, which includes a corporate Google Drive, Gmail accounts, Viz Media‘s internal dashboard, and access to Mediabox’s royalty-management dashboard.

CyberNews’ researchers investigated the post on the data leak forum, and said the senior executive could have “[fallen] victim to a social engineering attack leading to unauthorized access to [Viz Media‘s] internal systems.” The news outlet added the hackers likely gained access to a single person’s account.

CyberNews stated it had reached out to Viz Media and has yet to hear a reply. ANN similarly reached out to Viz Media about the situation. Although the company is looking into it, it had nothing to report as of press time.

CyberNews’ researchers advised Viz Media should react quickly and catalog what data was likely compromised, as the stolen data “could be used to compromise more systems within the company, leading to convincing phishing messages to the company’s partners.”

ANN also reached out to Viz Media to ask if the alleged hack could have also included customer information. Again, Viz Media had nothing to report as of press time, but it is looking into the situation.

Viz Media appointed Brad Woods as its new president and CEO in March. The previous President and CEO Ken Sasaki moved into the role of chairman & executive advisor. The company’s current executive vice president and general counsel is Trevor Stordahl.

While Viz Media does not list any other executive staff on its website, other people listed on LinkedIn with roles of vice president include: Candice Uyloan (vice-president of marketing), Laura Takaragawa (vice president of consumer products and promotions), Carl Hayes (vice president of consumer acquisition and retention, and engineering), and Jeanine Egan Licciardi (vice president of administration, human resources, and corporate support). ANN asked Viz Media if all these people were indeed in vice president positions in the company currently, but the company did not respond to ANN by press time.

Viz Media‘s X/Twitter account was hacked in January.

Source: CyberNews (Vilius Petkauskas) via Security Daily Review