PR TIMES leaks 900,000 personal information and undisclosed releases - events before GW announced on the same site on the night of May 7

PR TIMES (TSE PRM), a major press release distribution company, announced that a cyberattack on its service site was carried out by a third party on its service site on the night of May 7, 2025, April 24~25, before Golden Week. A total of 901,603 personal information and 1,682 unpublished press releases may have been leaked.

The leaked personal information includes 227,023 corporate users, 28,274 media users, 313,920 individual users, and 767 of the company's staff.

Takumi Yamaguchi, President of PR TIMES, Official Site "It is used by 57.8% of listed companies in Japan," and the current data states that the utilization rate of listed companies is 61.5%.

In light of these circumstances, it cannot be ruled out that some of the unannounced releases leaked this time may have contained content that could affect the stock price, which poses a serious information management risk for the company concerned.

Regarding the disclosure of information in this case, it was found that the initial server attack occurred on April 24~25, before Golden Week, and that traces of unauthorized access were confirmed on April 8~9 as well.

After identifying the scope of the impact and investigating the cause, PR TIMES made the announcement on its press release distribution site at 7 p.m. on May 7, the evening after the holidays.

Based on this process, it is believed that PR TIMES first focused on identifying the scope of the impact, considering the impact of the announcement on its company as a listed company, even though it had detected the cyberattack before Golden Week.

As a result, it was announced on the night of May 7, 12 days after the attack was detected, and it can be said that it lacked the speed and transparency required for information disclosure.

In addition, while it is customary to release press releases from midday on weekdays to around 4 p.m. at the latest, this announcement was made at 7 p.m. on May 7, the day after Golden Week, as if it had missed the peak hours of news programs.

As a result, it seems that there are many users who distributed press releases on May 7~8 without being able to grasp the fact of the information leak.

PR TIMES is in a position to provide a platform for distributing press releases to companies and organizations, and to support the way information is disseminated as a PR company.

The detection of the server attack and the subsequent series of responses tested the company's basic capabilities in public relations and crisis response, as well as its stance on social responsibility.