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17:39 JST, April 17, 2024
TOKYO (Jiji Press) – The Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications on Tuesday issued new administrative guidelines to LY Corp., operator of the Line messaging app and Yahoo! Japanese Internet portal, due to personal information breaches.
The ministry concluded that a report on preventive measures submitted by LY earlier this month was insufficient and ordered it to be reconsidered.
The company must submit another report before July 1. Minister of Internal Affairs and Communications Takeaki Matsumoto said he hopes LY will take the incident seriously and take thorough preventive measures.
About 520,000 records containing personal information of Line users, customers and employees were breached last fall as a result of unauthorized access to a server belonging to Naver Corp., a South Korean technology company with which LY has capital ties.
In the previous administrative guidelines issued last month, the ministry said LY relied heavily on Naver, for example by outsourcing the maintenance and operation of its information technology infrastructure to the South Korean company.
In its report submitted to the ministry on April 1, LY said it would complete the separation of its computer system from Naver’s by December 2026 and that it had requested a review of its capital ties with Naver. Matsumoto said at the time that the ministry would investigate the report and take additional steps if necessary.
