Posted at 11:56 p.m. PST Sunday, January 4, 1998
Japanese bank says cyber-thieves stole customer data
Reuters
TOKYO -- Cyber-criminals rifled through confidential computer records of
a major Japanese bank and stole information on customers' names,
telephone numbers, addresses and even birthdays, the bank said on
Monday.
Sakura Bank Ltd said data on up to 20,000 of its 15 million individual
customers could have been stolen and that it had confirmed that files on
at least 37 were then leaked to a mailing-list vendor in Tokyo.
The data included customers' names, telephone numbers, and birthdays, a
Sakura Bank spokesman said.
However, the thieves did not gain access to customer accounts and no
money was stolen, the spokesman said.
The data was likely to have been stolen when bank affiliate Sakura
Information Systems Co changed the software for its computer system last
year, the spokesman said.
He declined to give details of the change or the name of the parties
involved in installing the new system.
The computer system was used for such purposes as managing customers'
time deposits.
Sakura Bank had contacted the police on December 30 to urge them to
launch a probe into the incident, the spokesman said.
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