On October 4, 2026, Nikkei disclosed two separate unauthorized-access incidents involving its employees’ accounts on Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace. Nikkei said an employee’s Microsoft 365 account was used to send about 9,000 impersonation emails; in the separate Google Workspace incident, information associated with 1,646 employees and business partners may have been exposed. The disclosures concern Nikkei employee accounts on the services.
The Microsoft 365 account sent about 9,000 impersonation emails
Nikkei said the messages were sent on September 30 to people inside the company and external contacts, including reporting sources who had communicated with employees. They were intended to direct recipients to a malicious website.
Nikkei said recipients’ names and email addresses, along with the contents of some messages, may have been exposed. The company changed the affected password, reported no further unauthorized logins after the change, and contacted recipients individually to ask them to delete the messages.
Google Workspace information tied to 1,646 people may have been exposed
Nikkei said an employee’s Google Workspace account had been accessed without authorization from outside the company from late July onward. Google notified Nikkei in early August. The potentially exposed information included names and email addresses associated with 1,646 employees and business partners. Nikkei said the information did not include details about its readers or reporting sources.
Nikkei described the exposure as suspected. As of its October 4 notice, the company said it had not confirmed secondary harm from the incident.
Nikkei changed passwords and reported both incidents
Nikkei said it changed the affected account passwords and had observed no further unauthorized logins after those changes. It also said it reported both incidents to Japan’s Personal Information Protection Commission.
