Nomura subsidiary, retailer Bic Camera among latest affected by data breach

Nomura Investor Relations Co., a subsidiary of Nomura Holdings Inc., disclosed on Wednesday that its system offering services to professional investors and analysts experienced unauthorized access, leading to a data breach. This development followed reports that major electronics retailer Bic Camera Inc. may have also been impacted by the recent wave of data leaks.

According to Bic Camera's announcement on Monday, around 14.9 million customer records, including email addresses, may have been exposed due to unauthorized access to the system of a contractor handling its email newsletter distribution. While Nomura Investor Relations has not specified the exact number of records compromised, the leaked data is believed to encompass personal information such as names and email addresses.

The affected service, Institutional Navi, provides information on corporate earnings briefings and assists in attendance management. Unauthorized access was identified on Monday, with the data breach confirmed the following day. In response, Nomura Investor Relations suspended the service and initiated an investigation into the extent of the impact.

Additionally, they suspended another information service for individual investors that utilized the same server, as a precautionary measure, and are now examining whether it too had been subjected to unauthorized access.

Interestingly, Bic Camera revealed that the compromised email distribution system was managed by Arara Inc. Crucially, the breached data did not include credit card information or online shopping login credentials. Affected data might comprise customer information from Bic Camera and its subsidiaries, Kojima Co. and Sofmap Co. Bic Camera stated it is currently investigating the scope of those affected but has not confirmed any secondary damage thus far.