Japan's largest taxi operator Nihon Kotsu hit by malware attack, systems shut down

Full text

Japan’s largest taxi operator confirms July 11 malware attack forcing shutdowns of its IT systems and disrupted dispatch and reservation services

Nihon Kotsu isolated networks, notified authorities, and brought in third‑party experts; customers were advised to use alternative taxi apps during the outage

No data leaks have been confirmed, but Nihon Kotsu warned it may disclose and notify affected parties if evidence of personal information exposure emerges

Japan’s largest taxi operator, Nihon Kotsu, hasconfirmed suffering a cyberattack which forced it to temporarily shut down parts of its IT infrastructure.

In a statement published on the company’s Japanese website, Nihon Kotsu said the attack took place in the early morning of July 11 - on a Saturday, when unnamed threat actors infected its devices with malware.

“We have recently discovered that our internal systems have been subjected to unauthorized external access ( malware infection ),” the machine-translated statement reads. “We deeply apologize for the great inconvenience and concern caused to our customers, business partners, and all related parties due to this incident.”

Services unavailable

As soon as it spotted the intrusion, Nihon Kotsu did what most companies do - shut down its network to prevent further damage, notified relevant law enforcement and data protection authorities, and brought in third-party experts to assess the damages and assist with the repairs.

The shutdown means some customer-facing services are unavailable: “As a result, the hire car web order and reservation management system, taxi dispatch service by phone, and some internal systems are temporarily unavailable,” the company said.

It advised its customers to use a different taxi app, which allows users to choose a taxi service to their liking.

So far, there is no evidence of any data exfiltration, or leaks to the dark web. However, the company did leave it as a possibility.

“At this time, no information leakage has been confirmed, but if any leakage or possibility of personal information of customers or related parties is newly discovered, we will promptly make official announcements and contact the affected parties individually in accordance with laws and regulations,” the company concluded.

Nihon Kotsu is Japan’s largest taxi operator, employing more than 18,000 people and running a fleet of more than 8,500 taxis and more than 2,000 chauffeur vehicles.

Via BleepingComputer