Fergie's Tech Blog

NTT Cash Card Falls Victim to Hacking

Shihoko Goto writes for UPI:

From taking to prepaid cards from their early years to encouraging people to use mobile phones to purchase everything from train tickets to coffee, Japan has been quick to embrace the concept of a cashless society. Yet that openness to new models of paying for goods and services has backfired, as the country's telecommunications giant announced Tuesday that tens of thousands of its electronic money account holders' information had been leaked.

NTT Card Solution, a subsidiary of telecom giant NTT, reported that a hacker had broken into the server of its Net Cash network and gained access to about 81,105 accounts.

In a statement, the company apologized to its clients and added that it has already stopped selling more cards and terminated all transactions that could be done by existing cards. So far, about $28,318 (3.27 million yen) has been abused as a result of the hacking, NTT Card Solution reported, and it is working closely with the police to find out who had broken into the system in the first place.

posted by Fergie @ 6/20/2006 10:29:00 AM