Japan’s Government Network Breach Exposes 246,000 Personal Records Japan’s Digital Agency confirmed on Friday that approximately 246,000 personal records may have been exposed in a breach of the Government Solution Service (GSS), a shared IT environment used by multiple government agencies. The unauthorized access was detected on June 25 when an external party exploited a vulnerability in a virtual private network (VPN) device linked to a maintenance and operations account. The breach, identified during an investigation concluded on July 9, potentially affected records tied to 189,000 government employees and personnel from organizations using the GSS, as well as 57,000 records related to companies and individuals conducting business with the government. Exposed data includes 236,000 names, 231,000 email addresses, 94,000 phone numbers, and 1,000 physical addresses. Authorities stated that the breach did not involve personal data of the general public. In response, the affected account was disabled, and communications between the compromised equipment and external networks were restricted. The Digital Agency is continuing its investigation to assess the full scope of the incident and implement measures to prevent future breaches. Notifications will be sent to individuals and organizations identified as potentially impacted.