Panasonic admits intruders were inside its servers for months

Japanese industrial giant Panasonic has admitted it's been popped, and badly. A November 26 statement [PDF] from the company admits that its network "was illegally accessed by a third party on November 11, 2021". That date has since been revised – the company now says it became aware of the intrusion on the 11th, but that …

[iowe_iowe]

five months access?

After acknowledging at least five months of unauthorised access, some access to a file server is unlikely to be the extent of the problem. At least they did the decent thing and got a third party involved to put the stable door back on its hinges and bolt it. It'll make an interesting case study in about two years time..

Meanwhile keep a close eye on your breadmakers, people..

[iowe_iowe]

five months?

After acknowledging at least five months of unauthorised access, some access to a file server is unlikely to be the extent of the problem. At least they did the decent thing and got a third party involved to put the stable door back on its hinges and bolt it. It'll make an interesting case study in about two years time..

Meanwhile keep a close eye on your breadmakers, people..

[jgarbo]

A real pro crack...hidden for months

Usual suspects NSA? Looking for Telsa battery specs to revive GM? Musk has said all Tesla patents are open source, so why bother, unless Panasonic holds separate patents on production. Regardless, undetected for ~5 mths is good work.

[tip pc]

Re: A real pro crack...hidden for months

And that’s 1 hack we know about.

[Ian Johnston]

Re: A real pro crack...hidden for months

All patents are open source. That's why the patent system exists.

[John Brown (no body)]

Re: A real pro crack...hidden for months

Why would anyone hack a server to access patents that are publicly accessible from the relevant patent office? I'm sure the NSA budget could stretch to the relevant few $$ fee.

[YetAnotherJoeBlow]

Too long...

Unless Panasonic mandated insecure proceedures, if I was the CIO, I would resign embarrassed and ashamed. Five months or longer? Even in large IT estates, there are SOPs that would trip in short order.

[Geoff Campbell]

Re: Too long...

You seem very sure of yourself. Certainly there will be SOPs that *should* trip in short order, but are they 100% infallible? How have you tested that?

GJC

[Anonymous Coward]

Who else out there DOES NOT KNOW they are being hacked?

So.....Equifax for months (way back when)......now Panasonic. Who else?

*

GDPR is (still) a joke!!!

*

Just saying!

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Who else out there DOES NOT KNOW they are being hacked?

Ok. I'll bite.

Panasonic is a Japanese company and presumably operated said network on-site in Japan. Unless they were storing personally identifiiable data (PII) on EU citizens on the compromised file server, it's not GDPR relevant.

In other words, you are "just saying" incorrect/irrelevant statements, hence the downvote. I respectfully suggest you read up on GDPR first. Wikipedia is a good place to start.