Companies

Kansai Electric’s Data Access Scandal Expands

Yomiuri Shimbun file photo
The headquarters of The Kansai Electric Power Co. are seen in Osaka in April 2021.

Jiji Press

13:14 JST, April 20, 2023

OSAKA (Jiji Press) — Kansai Electric Power Co.’s data access scandal has affected information on not just household customers but also corporate customers of rival power retailers, it was learned Wednesday.

Kansai Electric said on the day that a total of 2,010 employees and others had fraudulently accessed information on 10,940 corporate customers of rival firms.

Including the newly found cases, a total of 3,616 Kansai Electric employees and others were involved in the fraudulent data access, and a total of 164,035 household and corporate customers were affected.

The company also said that its survey has newly found that 62 employees used information on rival firms’ household customers in the three years to December 2022.

According to the company, the 62 employees fraudulently viewed information on 54,744 customers of rival firms, and 3,911 of them switched to Kansai Electric’s services.