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Canon employee data exposed in ransomware attack

The company has admitted that hackers accessed sensitive information about current and former employees

1 Dec 2020

Canon sign at the Canon Solutions America offices in Silicon Valley

The US subsidiary of Canon has admitted that a ransomware attack on its infrastructure left corporate data, including employee information, exposed.

In a statement, Canon USA said that it is in contact with law enforcement agencies and is using a cyber security company to help investigate the issue.

It said there was “unauthorized activity on our network between July 20, 2020 and August 6, 2020. During that time, there was unauthorized access to files on our file servers”.

In August, the Maze ransomware group has posted on its darknet website over 2.5GB of data it claimed was from Canon USA.

Canon added that after a careful review of file service earlier this month, it determined that there were files that contained information about current and former employees from 2005 to 2020, along with their beneficiaries and dependents.

“The information in the files included the individuals' names and one or more of the following data elements: Social Security number, driver's license number or government-issued identification number, financial account number provided to Canon for direct deposit, electronic signature, and date of birth,” the company said in a statement.

It added that, as a precaution, employees will receive a complimentary membership to Experian's credit monitoring service.

Earlier this month, the gang behind the Maze ransomware said it would be shutting down its operations for good. The notorious group, first discovered in May 2019, built a solid reputation in a short space of time to encrypt all the files it can on infected systems before demanding a ransom to return the documents.

Since Maze “retiring”, other gangs, such as Egregor, have taken up the mantle to strike at other firms.