Hacker Stole Rs 3.45 Crore From The 7-Eleven Japan’s Mobile Payment App

The 7Pay app - a newly introduced mobile payment of 7-Eleven - will be shut down. It is considered as a sequential action after the hacking crisis happened to this brand recently with Rs 3.45 crore bogus charges on its customers.

The 7Pay app was launched on July 1, allowing 7-Elevent’s customers to link their payment card with the app and make payment to their barcode scanned products via the app.

Unfortunately, just after releasing the feature, the company got a complaint about the payment charged for what they didn’t buy, automatically from the app. 

According to Yahoo News Japan, there was a flaw involved in. This flaw hacker had information about these users, including birthday, email address, phone number and be able to reset their password via email. The app also sets a default birthdate of January 1st, 2019 for those didn’t fill in the field. This action makes the flaw easier to hack into the system.  

The attack was set automatically, attacking 900 accounts with a total ransom amount of ¥ 55 million ($500,000). The company then have to shut down the app (suspended the existing users and stopped new registers) as well as warn its customers about the situation via the official website. A new support line associating to this issue was set up and a compromise to compensate for all hacked accounts was officially delivered to its customers. 

The company also received a warning about security from Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry via the Japan Times. Two individuals were arrested by Japanese authorities for their attempt to use hacked accounts. These people were believed to have a connection with a Chinese crime ring who is reputed to have stolen identities online.