Two months after GMO Payment Gateway data leak, last website affected resumes work
The Japan Housing Finance Agency has confirmed that its credit card payment site is now safe to use, nearly two months after GMO Payment Gateway announced the personal data leak and shut the page down.
The consequences from the credit card data leak from the websites of two of the clients of GMO Payment Gateway Inc (TYO:3769) have been significant, but the company seems to have finally managed to tackle the matter.
Nearly two months after the leak was first detected and reported, the credit card payment website of the Japan Housing Finance Agency is re-opening. The relaunch is scheduled for June 5, 2017, at 16:00 local time. The agency says that the website is safe to use, following the implementation of extra security measures and checks conducted by both external and internal experts.
The credit card payment site for metropolitan tax operated by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, which was also affected by the data leak, resumed its work on April 24, 2017.
The work of both websites was halted on March 10, 2017, several hours after GMO Payment Gateway confirmed unauthorized access to the websites and heavy data leak.
Preliminary estimates have indicated that the number of “units of information” leaked through the Tokyo Metropolitan Government website was 676,290, including 614,629 email addresses, 61,661 credit card numbers and credit card expiration dates. The number of “units” of credit card information reportedly leaked from the Japan Housing Finance Agency was 43,540, including credit card numbers, credit card expiration dates, security codes, credit card payment registration dates, addresses, email addresses, names, phone numbers, as well as dates of birth and payment joining dates. The numbers have been revised later to avoid doubling of information.
Following the incident, GMO Payment Gateway has established a special “Recurrence prevention committee” to investigate the case and to help it implement measures to prevent such incidents from happening in the future. GMO Payment Gateway has also responded to a request by the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) and has submitted a special report into the case.
In tune with the strict business ethics in Japan, GMO Payment Gateway’s management has taken responsibility for the incident and three of the company’s Board Members have accepted salary cuts.
