Hiroshima Peace Website Hacked, Personal Information Stolen
The Hiroshima for Global Peace website has been hacked, and almost 4000 items of personal data, including names, addresses, and registered passwords of individuals, companies, and organizations, are suspected to have been leaked.
The “Hiroshima for Global Peace” website, a portal site website run by the Hiroshima Prefectural Government, which introduces its efforts to promote the abolition of nuclear weapons, was hacked at the edge of December last year and remains closed. The prefecture had planned to use the site to promote the abolition issues and events during the 80th anniversary of the A-bomb attack; it seems unlikely that they will be able to reopen it.
According to the prefecture, the website, the running of which is contracted out to an outside company, was discovered to have been tampered with on December 30th of last year.
An online statement currently reads:
On December 30, 2024, the “Hiroshima for Global Peace” website experienced unauthorized access. It was discovered that some pages were altered, and there is a high possibility that data and personal information stored on the website’s server were leaked. Consequently, the website is currently offline. We immediately consulted with the Hiroshima Prefectural Police after the incident was discovered, and the investigation into the cause is ongoing.
For more details, please check the official Hiroshima Prefecture website. We apologize for the inconvenience and appreciate your understanding.
Another website managed by the prefecture was also hacked in June 2024, and the prefecture has ordered all of its approximately 50 outsourced sites to be checked.
Chugoku Shinbun reports that the tampering was discovered after registered members received a suspicious email requesting they transfer 3 million yen in Bitcoin, with the names and addresses of four members included in the email. The newspaper says that the prefecture admits that the personal information of 3,705 individuals and 153 companies and organizations may have been leaked.
With a series of international conferences and events planned to be held as part of the 80th anniversary of the atomic bombing, Prefectural officials will be keen to get the site up and running again, but media reports seem to suggest that is unlikley t happen any time soon.
