Hacker Group Claims to Be Behind Nichirei Cyberattack

Tokyo, July 22 (Jiji Press)--A Russian hacker group calling itself "RansomHouse" has claimed responsibility for a cyberattack that disrupted the operations of major Japanese frozen food maker Nichirei Corp., it was learned Wednesday.

Nichirei declined to provide details about the attack while saying that it is aware of the group's claim.

The disruption has affected many companies with business relations with the Nichirei group, which has a total of about 5,000 business partners. Nichirei aims to fully restore operations, including shipments, within this week.

Nobuo Miwa, president of information security service provider S&J Corp., has confirmed a statement posted by the group on the dark web, a highly anonymous part of the internet. In the statement, RansomHouse displayed what it claims is data stolen from Nichirei and urged the company to contact the group if it wants to prevent the information from being leaked.

RansomHouse is known for regularly using ransomware as its primary attack method. In such attacks, perpetrators use malware to encrypt data and demand ransom payments to restore access. RansomHouse also issued a statement claiming responsibility when Japanese office and household goods supplier Askul Corp. was hit by a cyberattack last year that took down the company's system.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]