NTT Smart Connect aims to restore “Smile Server” around mid-September Unauthorized access issue

On August 19, NTT Smart Connect (Kita-ku, Osaka), a subsidiary of NTT West Japan, announced its outlook for the restoration of its rental server service "Smile Server," which has been partially suspended due to unauthorized access. If the investigation confirms that there is no impact on user data, we will prepare the environment at the time of service suspension as a ``recovery environment'' and aim to start providing it around mid-September.

Unauthorized access was confirmed on July 24th. Two Smile Server server facilities ("jm9" and "jm10") were affected, and all services on both facilities were suspended at 1 p.m. on the same day to prevent the damage from spreading. The company says there is no impact on users using servers other than these two.

An external specialized research organization is currently conducting an investigation to confirm the cause, scope of impact, and whether data has been affected. Completion is expected by the end of August. The company has completed the required reports to the relevant ministries and agencies, and as far as it has confirmed by the same day, there is no evidence that user information has been leaked to outside parties. If a leak is found as a result of the investigation, the affected users will be contacted individually as soon as possible.

User data stored on equipment that is out of service cannot be returned at this time. Since the equipment is the subject of an investigation and it cannot be ruled out that it may have been affected by unauthorized access, the company has determined that handing over the data could cause secondary damage to the user's environment. As a result, users are required to rebuild their website and email environments, and from the 27th, we are providing alternative servers.

Once the recovery environment is available, users will be able to choose whether to retrieve data from the recovery environment and use it on an alternative server, or continue using the recovery environment as is. However, the timing of the provision may change depending on the survey results, and we will provide further information regarding the highly accurate forecast after the survey is completed.

The company set up a task force on the day the unauthorized access was confirmed, and has been investigating the cause and taking measures to respond to users. Measures to prevent recurrence will be formulated based on the investigation results. Users were urged to consider changing their passwords if they were using the same FTP or email account passwords for other services as they were for the suspended equipment, and they were also urged to be wary of suspicious emails or phone calls that appear to be from the company.