Sanrio probes possible leak of shareholders' data

TOKYO - Hello Kitty owner Sanrio may have been hit by a data leak affecting more than 6,000 shareholders.

The company behind the popular Japanese cartoon character said in a statement yesterday that it is investigating the potential leak.

The personal details of some 6,250 people who joined an online rewards programme could have been stolen, including their names, phone numbers and addresses, Bloomberg reported.

Sanrio found out after some of these shareholders got investment offers from a third party, which should not have had access to their details.

"Once we find out the cause, we will consider measures to build systems that intruders can't easily gain access to, or to limit the number of employees who have access to the data within the company," said Sanrio's managing director Susumu Emori at a briefing.

The episode follows data leaks that have plagued other organisations including Sony, Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan, Target, Home Depot and eBay. In Singapore, the personal data of 317,000 K Box customers was leaked in September.

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