Nitori, a major Japanese furniture and home accessories retailer, says an unauthorized party may have obtained up to 37.62 million customer records from a system on its network. The company detected the intrusion on November 6 and blocked the access, but its investigation says the attacker may have been inside the system since mid-October.
Company records and customer data
Nitori, also called the “IKEA of Japan,” operates 879 stores in Japan and 219 more across China, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Singapore, and Hong Kong. It reported annual revenue of $5.8 billion. The incident affects individual customers, corporate members, and non-members who placed orders through official Nitori stores and online shops.
The company said the exposed information may cover different groups in different ways. For individual members and purchasers, the list includes membership numbers, names, email addresses, postal addresses, telephone numbers, dates of birth, and gender. For corporate members, the possible data includes membership numbers, company names, department names, representatives’ names, company addresses and telephone numbers, and contact persons’ names, email addresses, and telephone numbers. Online order information for purchases through Nitori Net and official Nitori shops on e-commerce marketplaces may also be involved.
What the company says was protected
Nitori said account passwords for registered members and credit card information were not exposed in the incident. It also said it promptly blocked the attacker’s access, addressed vulnerabilities in its systems, and strengthened threat monitoring to help prevent similar incidents in the future. The company warned that the compromised information could be used in phishing attacks and scam attempts.
The announcement says Nitori will never ask customers for a password, credit card number, or PIN by email or in phone conversations. It also says the company informed Japan’s Personal Information Protection Commission, the police, and other relevant authorities, and that it will notify affected customers directly by email or post.
Investigation and follow-up
A Nitori spokesperson later told BleepingComputer that the company is still investigating the cause, including whether ransomware was involved, and is working with external cybersecurity experts. The spokesperson said the number of customers impacted has not yet been determined.
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