Email addresses of many gov’t officials compromised

April 4, 2018

Tokyo- Email addresses of many Japanese central government officials for work have been compromised, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said Wednesday.

Following the incident, the National Center of Incident Readiness and Strategy for Cybersecurity, or NISC, warned all government agencies in writing Tuesday.

According to the NISC, email addresses and passwords registered with online shopping and other websites have been compromised, including email addresses of government officials.

The number of affected government-use addresses is believed to have reached several thousands. Suga did not give any specific number.

The government bans its employees from using official email addresses and passwords for private purposes.

The latest incident "was not caused by a cyberattack on a government agency information system," Suga told a news conference.

"But it is important to take steps to prevent leaked information from being abused," he stressed. Jiji Press