Nikkei reports breaches of employee Google and Microsoft email accounts

Japanese publisher Nikkei says unknown attackers accessed two employee email accounts in separate incidents and used one of them to send 9,000 phishing emails.

Nikkei said an employee’s Google Workspace account was accessed in late July, exposing personal information belonging to employees and business partners. After Google notified the company, Nikkei discovered the breach in early August and changed the account password. The exposed data may include the names and email addresses of 1,646 people. Nikkei said it did not include information about readers or interviewees.

In September, attackers accessed another employee’s Microsoft 365 account. On September 30, emails with links to malicious websites were sent to Nikkei staff and interviewees who had been in contact with several employees. Nikkei said it changed passwords, has confirmed no unauthorized logins since then, and contacted recipients to ask them to delete the emails. It also warned people to watch for suspicious messages impersonating Nikkei or its subsidiaries.

Nikkei has not identified a threat actor or hacking group behind the incidents, and has not said whether they are connected. The company has disclosed other security incidents in recent years, including a Slack breach last year that affected more than 17,000 employees and business partners.