Ly Corporation, the messaging company behind Messenger, Line Messenger, has reported an unauthorized access to its systems that has affected hundreds of thousands of users, partners, and employees. In a notification sent to affected clients on November 27, the company revealed that unauthorized individuals gained access to servers through the Naver Cloud Corporation system, owned by a branch of the company.
A virus infected the computer of an employee at the branch on October 9, and Ly Corporation, which controls the Line application, determined that there was a “high probability” of unauthorized access from external sources to the application systems.
The attackers were able to access hundreds of thousands of records containing user, employee, and business partner information. The compromised user data from the Line application includes:
- The activity of user voice calls
- Information about dialogs, including country, gender, age group, and operating system of senders and recipients
- Information about content publication, including time and date
- Total number of subscribers/friends of users
- Start and end time of published videos
As of November 27, the compromised data includes information about 302,569 user entries, 86,105 partner records, and 51,353 employees and staff members. This information includes names, work book numbers, and email addresses. The company assures that the compromised data did not include any information about bank accounts, credit cards, or chats within the Line application.
Ly Corporation is urging all affected parties to remain vigilant against fraudulent messages and phishing attempts. The company also plans to engage external organizations to conduct an audit and enhance its security measures.
The Line application was launched in Japan in 2011 and has gained popularity for its video and text chat services, free voice calls on IP, and video conferences. Line is widely used not only in Japan but also in countries such as Taiwan, Thailand, and Indonesia, boasting more than 176 million active monthly users worldwide.