From Software owner ‘currently considering solutions’ after being hacked by ransomware gang

From Software parent company, Kadokawa Corporation, has been hacked, with the unnamed ransomware group threatening to release 1.5TB of data on July 1 if their demands aren’t met. According to their message, the group gained access to the Kadokawa network almost a month ago and has “encrypted the whole network” after accessing the control center.

Kadokawa Corporation has since confirmed that they’ve been hacked via a lengthy announcement wherein they stated: “On Saturday, June 8, the servers located in the KADOKAWA Group’s data center experienced a significant cyberattack including ransomware, targeting Niconico and the related services. KADOKAWA is currently considering solutions and workarounds quickly on a company-wide basis in order to normalize its systems and business activities.”

Some of the data the group is threatening to leak include “contracts, DocuSigned papers, various legal papers, platform users-related data (emails, data usage, links opened, etc.), employee-related data (personal info, payments, contracts, emails, etc.), business planning (presentations, emails, offers, etc.), projects-related data (coding, emails, payments, etc.), financial data (payments, transfers, planning, etc.), other internal-use-only papers and confidential data.”

The ransomware group also revealed that the Kadokawa IT department “detected [their] presence within the network 3 days before [they] had encrypted [it].” Although company admins attempted to kick the hackers out, they had “managed to set undetectable access to the network,” allowing them to continue downloading data even after detection.

The hackers added they are “offering to help make Kadokawa’s network better, based upon [their lifelong] experience, in addition to network decryption and deletion of leaked data” if their demands are met. However, the amount the ransomware group wants from Kadokawa Corporation remains unclear.