Yahoo Japan Loses Data Stored by 5,700 Companies

A company operated by Yahoo Japan lost data belonging to 5,698 companies after one of its computer systems failed last week, the company said.

Firstserver, the Yahoo subsidiary, rents out servers to firms. It said it would compensate customers affected by the data loss, according to a statement obtained by the Japan Times.

“Regrettably, we have determined that we cannot retrieve the data,” the statement reads, adding that the Osaka-based company cannot rebuild the servers.

The failure took place Wednesday when the firm attempted to upgrade the servers.

The companies that were affected by the data loss include the Newspaper Association of Japan, Tokyo Table Tennis Federation, and Nagano Electric Railway, according to ZDNet.

Yahoo acquired nearly 58 percent of Firstserver in 2004 to have more control over the server rental and domain industry.

In a separate development, hacker group Anonymous attacked government websites over Japan’s new laws against downloading copyrighted material, national broadcaster NHK reported.

Part of the Ministry of Finance site was shut down Tuesday over the attack.

According to NHK, the hackers posted on the site a photo and message criticizing the government’s decision to restart two nuclear reactors. They also posed a statement purportedly by hacktivist group Anonymous claiming responsibility for the attack.

Anonymous had warned via Twitter on Monday that it would attack government sites over the copyright issue.