I added a post-note for this article on end of this post. The damage of the attacking was huge and massive leaking had occured, but it seems not to be the Doxing of all authors.
One of the major publishers, KADOKAWA, has been targeted by the BlackSuits ransomware attackers, resulting in a significant breach of the personal information of writers, students, YouTubers, and other business partners. The range of the leaking has not cleared yet, but it might include which KADOKAWA has held thousands of their names, addresses, phone numbers, and payment information.
New: Hackers behind Kadokawa Cyberattack Claim Further Info Leak
Further Criminal Declaration by the Perpetrators and the KADOKAWA Group’s Response Concerning Information Leakage Caused by the Ransomware Attack
Release PDF from Kadokawa, 2nd July.
I worry this leaking is cracking the Japanese freedom of speech that was created through publishing after the World War.
Japanese writers aren’t used to contract publishing via agent; their contract and personal information have been stored on publishers for years. Because Japanese writers easily publish their books from many publishers without an agent, their private information is stored on many publishers. In the case of me, twelve publishers have it. Flipping the perspective, each publisher has many writers’ privacy. I don’t know how many writers have published via KADOKAWA ever, but at least KADOKAWA published 5,500 books last year.
It means, quite among writers, privacy was leaked; in other words, 50% of known writers.
Writers can’t keep mind while their home addres, phone number or income is disclosed for evryone. Some writers are going to have literary agents with pay, but some others would quit writing.
It’s no joke that delicate writers are leaving, and only the “invincible ones” who don’t have things to guard remain.
The situation would slide slowly. Every time news comes out about stalkers threatening writers, one by one, more writers who have families, secrets, and the other things to guard to leave.
Freedom of publishing in Japan has reached a major turning point with massive leaks.
I hope, KADOKAWA and other publishers will support writers to have literary agents. It might not be the silver bullet, but the step forward.
Postnote: After publishing this English article, I stareted to translate for Japanese, but coudln’t finished, finally quited. I posted similar comment to Xwitter, but I hesitated to record on blog.
2nd post-note 3rd July: Blacksuites had deleted leaking directions from dark web. Leaking had stopped right now.
Post note
On the 5th of August, KADOKAWA finally revealed how their stolen informaion was leaked on their website. According to their release, 254,240 personnal data was leaked on the dark-web site which is served by hacker team.
The data that turned out to have been leaked and exposed was related to Dwango, a KADOKAWA group company and operator of Nico Nico Douga. It includes personal data of Dwango employees and business partners, students at N Junior and Senior High School, an online school run by Dwango, and former Dwango employees. The leaked data included bank account numbers, personnel performance information and grades.
It’s a huge loss, but I’m just now patting myself on the back with relief that it doesn’t seem to be tied to the ‘Doxing of all Japanese writers’ that I feared in this entry.
