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Press Releases 2004

Results to Date in Authentication of Leaked CustomerInformation and Measures for the Future

Feb. 27, 2004

SOFTBANK BB Corp.(“SOFTBANK BB”), a wholly-owned subsidiary of SOFTBANK CORP.(“SOFTBANK”) has been working to authenticate Yahoo! BB customer information which was leaked and used in extortion attempts. Reviews and comparisons of the leaked data confirmed that the majority of the information did indeed concern Yahoo! BB customers.

However, there was no leakage of credit or security information such as credit card numbers, bank account numbers, passwords, records of use. Below is a summary of our findings to date and our measures for the future.

1. Results of comparison of confirmed data against customer information held by SOFTBANK BB

A comparison of materials furnished by the police for analysis against customer information held by SOFTBANK BB confirmed that personal information on 4,517,039 persons had been leaked.

Results of comparison

  Materials for which the police requested analysis (records) Customer information (persons)
  Total:
5,167,081		 (Customer information leaked)
4,517,039
Suspect Yuasa’s case 4,600,575 4,447,751
Suspect Kimata’s case 566,506 556,611
[Notes]
  • *The discrepancy between data provided by the police and total records matched is due to duplicate data between the two cases and failure to match Yahoo! BB customer information.
  • *The discrepancy between the total persons matched in the two cases and the total customer information leaked represents duplicates data in the two cases.

Breakdown of authenticated customer information

  Current subscribers Persons in application process Free trial campaign applicants Canceled subscribers Total
No. of Persons 2,403,617 9,834 1,473,774 629,814 4,517,039
2,103,588

2. Details of authenticated customer information

  • 1) Application address
  • 2) Name
  • 3) Telephone number
  • 4) E-mail address (at time of application)
  • 5) Yahoo! Mail address/Yahoo! JAPAN ID
  • 6) Dates of application
[Note]
  • *No credit card numbers, bank account numbers, passwords, records of use or other credit information were included in the data. The authenticated data was from a separate database than the database containing credit information.

3. Investigation of leakage route and measures for future improvements

SOFTBANK BB is working in conjunction with investigatory authorities to uncover the route by which the information was leaked.

Immediately after it was learned that customer information had been leaked, the company organized an Investigation Committee that reports directly to President and CEO Masayoshi Son and is chaired by Chief Operating Officer Ken Miyauchi.

The Investigation Committee is working in cooperation with investigatory authorities to identify all possible leakage routes and conduct a thorough internal study.

Regrettably, SOFTBANK BB has not yet been able to identify how the information was leaked.

SOFTBANK BB will continue to exert every effort to clarify all aspects of the case and is cooperating fully with investigative authorities in order to prevent secondary leakage or misuse of the data.

Immediately after the detection of data leakage, the company made a number of improvements in the way that it manages personalcustomer data in order to prevent any recurrence.

  • *Releases, announcements, presentations and other information available from this page and elsewhere on this website were prepared based on information available and views held at the time of preparation and speak only as of the respective dates on which they are filed or used by SOFTBANK or the applicable group company, as the case may be. Such information is subject to change and may become out-of-date. Such information may also contain forward-looking statements which are by their nature subject to various risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results and future developments to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such statements. Please read legal notices in its entirety prior to viewing any information available on this website.