Japan Aviation Electronics says servers accessed during cyberattack

Manufacturing giant Japan Aviation Electronics confirmed that its systems are facing a cyberattack that has forced the company to shut down its website.

On Monday evening, the maker of electronics and aerospace products replaced its website with a static message indicating some of its servers were accessed by hackers last Thursday.

“We are currently investigating the status of damage and restoring operations, but some systems have been suspended and there have been some delays in sending and receiving e-mails,” said the company, which has revenues of more than a billion dollars.

“No information leakage has been confirmed to date. We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience caused to our customers and other concerned parties. We will immediately inform you of any new matters to be reported as soon as we find them through further investigation.”

The company’s website has been limited to one page with that message in English and Japanese.

Japan Aviation Electronics was added to the leak site of the AlphV/Black Cat ransomware gang on Monday but the company has not confirmed whether it is dealing with a ransomware attack.

The attack comes amid a spate of incidents targeting the country’s largest companies in recent months.

Watchmaker Seiko, Casio, zipper giant YKK, pharmaceutical company Eisai and the largest trading port in Japan have all faced cyberattacks or ransomware incidents this year. Millions of Japanese customers of insurance firms Zurich and Aflac were affected by a breach in January.

In August, it was discovered that suspected Chinese hackers breached Japan’s cybersecurity agency and potentially accessed sensitive data stored on its networks for nine months.