Kadokawa cyberattack: legal action to be taken against anyone spreading leaked data 

Dwango issued a warning on July 5 that they intend to take legal action against anyone spreading leaked information that was stolen in last month’s cyberattack targeting Kadokawa Corporation. Subsidiaries of Dwango include game developer and publisher Spike Chunsoft, and the video streaming site Niconico. 

As we reported previously, the Japanese media conglomerate Kadokawa Corporation suffered a ransomware attack at the beginning of June 2024. The cyberattack targeted the dedicated server for Dwango (one of Kadokawa’s group companies), with hacker group Black Suits going on to claim responsibility for the attack and to threaten to leak the 1.5 TB of data that they alleged to have stolen. Since then, Kadokawa Corporation has released frequent updates on the situation on their temporary website. 

In the early hours of July 2, numerous reports claiming that information had been leaked started surfacing on the Internet. The Kadokawa Corporation released a statement on July 3 confirming the high likelihood of various specific data being leaked online. This data included the personal information of all Kadokawa Dwango employees and that of some students who attend Kadokawa-operated online schools. The leak also included a number of legal documents, including contracts between Dwango companies and external organizations and individuals.  

As well as repeatedly apologizing to all those affected by the situation, Kadokawa has also set up a dedicated helpdesk for inquiries. “We shall stand firm in our response rather than give in to such criminal acts,” they said in their July 3 statement. 

As reported by Defaminicogamer today, Dwango’s July 5 statement took a hard line on people who are purposefully spreading the leaked information on online noticeboards, social media and the like. The company stated that it would be working with lawyers to take legal action against those who maliciously distribute the leaked information. Kadokawa Corporation and Dwango are continuing their investigation with the aid of external professional organizations, and plan to release the results at the end of July 2024.