Unauthorized Access to the Genkai Town Furusato Tax Special Site Leads to Data Breach: Domestic Data Breach Case 2024

📢 Incident

📅 Date of Occurrence: August 20, 2024

🏛️ Affected Entity: Genkai Town Furusato Tax Special Site

🔓 Leaked Data: Personal information of approximately 413,867 individuals

📌 This case highlights the severity of cyberattacks targeting local government online services.

📆 Timeline of Unauthorized Access and Discovery

📅 August 20, 2024: The site experienced delayed response times.

🔍 Investigation confirmed unauthorized external access.

📢 August 27, 2024: The unauthorized access was officially disclosed, and the site was taken offline.

⚠️ A classic case of a cyberattack targeting local government digital infrastructure!

🛑 Attack Methods and Causes

🕵️‍♂️ Attack Technique: SQL Injection

💡 Method: Exploiting vulnerabilities in input forms to gain unauthorized database access.

🚨 Cause of the Attack: A security vulnerability introduced during the site modification on May 16, 2024.

📢 Proper security checks could have prevented the breach!

📊 Potentially Leaked Data

📧 Donors' Email Addresses: 📩 413,818 records

📞 Donors' Phone Numbers: 📱 33 records

🆔 Site Members’ Login IDs: 🔑 29 records

🔐 Encrypted Site Members' Passwords: 🔑 2,664 records

🏛️ Local Government Staff Accounts: 🛡️ 46 records

🏢 Business Accounts of Gift Providers: 🏢 1 record

🚨 Total: Approximately 413,867 personal records may have been compromised!

🔧 Response and Prevention Measures

🛠️ Immediate Response

✅ Site taken offline

✅ Security audit conducted by external experts

✅ Users advised to change their passwords

🔐 Preventive Measures

🚀 Implementation of cloud security solutions

🔍 Strengthening regular security audits

📢 Raising awareness about phishing attacks among users

🛡️ Lessons Learned and Future Actions

🔴 Local government online services are also prime targets for cyberattacks!

🛠️ Security audits during site modifications must be thorough, and SQL injection prevention must be reinforced.

📢 In case of a data breach, swift disclosure and immediate victim support are key to restoring trust!

💡 "Being a local government does not mean you're not a target"—in fact, it makes you an even bigger target. Strengthening security is essential!

📢 Summary

⚠️ Local government online systems were targeted, leading to a breach of approximately 410,000 records!

💻 SQL injection was used to extract sensitive data from the database.

🚨 Proper security measures could have prevented the incident.

✅ Review your organization’s security policies now using the countermeasures outlined in this article!

📜 Source: Official Announcement

🚀 Take action now to strengthen the security of your organization or local government!