【Breaking News】Russian Hacker Group Claims Responsibility for Taking Down Niconico

The main events surrounding the KADOKAWA hacking incident can be summarized in chronological order as follows.

Around 3:30 AM on June 8, 2024:
Multiple websites of the KADOKAWA Group experience outages

June 9, 2024:
KADOKAWA makes its first official announcement regarding the outage

June 14, 2024:
KADOKAWA officially reports and apologizes for the cyberattack damage
Announces that a large-scale cyberattack on the "Nico Nico" service was the cause
Dwango executives explain the situation on YouTube, stating that it will take more than a month for services to resume
Reports delays in some payments due to system failures

June 22, 2024:
NewsPicks publishes a paid article titled "Top Secret Document: The Full Details of the "Ransom" Demanded by Hackers"

According to the article, the following information was revealed:

1. The KADOKAWA Group was being asked to pay a ransom by hackers.
2. Dwango COO and Niconico CEO Shigetaka Kurita was allegedly in charge of negotiations with the hackers.
3. Kurita allegedly transferred about 470 million yen worth of Bitcoin to the hackers without approval from the board of directors.
4. The hackers then demanded an additional ransom of 1.3 billion yen.
5. This information was "top secret" and only accessible to executives, and many senior employees in the company were unaware of it.
6. This report is said to have caused widespread doubt within the KADOKAWA Group about who leaked the information.

These reports raise serious questions about KADOKAWA's governance, decision-making process, and cybersecurity measures. However, KADOKAWA has officially denied the reports, and the truth of the matter must be carefully assessed.

KADOKAWA immediately issued a press release and strongly protested.

June 27, 2024:
KADOKAWA releases third report on system failure and current business activities.
Russian hacker crime group "Black Suit" claims responsibility on dark site.

In this incident, a large-scale and persistent cyber attack using multiple methods, including ransomware, was carried out, and many of the KADOKAWA Group's servers were encrypted and services were suspended. KADOKAWA was forced to take measures such as physically cutting off the power to the servers to prevent the damage from spreading. Investigations and recovery work are still ongoing, and it is expected that full recovery will take some time.