Data breach potentially exposes information of 125,000 police officers and staff

Personal information belonging to about 125,000 officers and staff members at 20 prefectural police forces across Japan might have been compromised in a cyberattack on cloud service provider Arcadia, sources at the National Police Agency (NPA) said Tuesday.

More than 18,000 email addresses belonging to members of the public and businesses that signed up for crime alerts might also have been exposed.

The 20 police departments, including those in Aichi, Hyogo and Hiroshima prefectures, had outsourced to Arcadia, based in Minoh, Osaka Prefecture, a system used to check whether officers and staff members were safe during emergencies such as natural disasters, and whether they are able to report for duty.

The information potentially exposed includes names and email addresses registered with the system. Because the system was designed for emergency communications, most of the email addresses are believed to be personal accounts used via private mobile phones. Some police departments, including those in Tochigi and Saitama prefectures, had also registered information about which department employees work at.

Four prefectural police departments, including those in Shimane and Yamaguchi, had also outsourced to Arcadia systems for distributing crime alerts to residents and businesses. These systems contained the names and email addresses of about 16,000 individuals, along with more than 2,600 email addresses of companies and other organizations.

The police departments in Kyoto and Fukuoka prefectures used both systems.

No cases of the potentially exposed information being used for fraud or other criminal activities have been confirmed, the sources said. The NPA has instructed the affected police departments to gather information and alert people to the risk of further harm. It has also called on them to arrange alternative means of contacting personnel during emergencies.

The cyberattack on Arcadia has also raised concerns about potential data breaches at other organizations, including local governments and fire departments across Japan.