Visual Arts, the entity behind the Key brand and renowned for works like Air and Clannad, announced on June 4 that it had recently fallen victim to a significant data breach. A PDF document outlining the event revealed that the complete gold master build of the company’s forthcoming title anemoi was exposed, alongside potential compromise of additional personal and confidential data.
Visual Arts has verified that the gold master build of anemoi was illicitly uploaded to an international website on April 19, ahead of its scheduled release on April 24. Following an internal probe, the company determined that a third party likely acquired unauthorized access to their cloud storage and internal portal credentials, resulting in the theft of the game and other sensitive information.
In response, the company lodged a complaint with Japan’s Personal Information Protection Commission on May 11 and has pledged to engage with other pertinent authorities concerning the breach.
Visual Arts reports that over 10,000 instances of personal and confidential data may have been accessed and potentially shared by an unauthorized party. This encompasses private details of staff members, clients, associates, job applicants, and other connected individuals. However, as the investigation remains ongoing at publication, the figures and specifics mentioned in the company’s statement are provisional.
Aside from the unauthorized release of anemoi’s master build, no additional instances of Visual Arts’ personal or confidential data being shared or misused have been confirmed thus far.
The company has initiated steps to prevent future occurrences of this nature. These efforts involve overhauling internal system access codes and user permissions, implementing a continuous monitoring framework, creating protocols to identify dubious activities on internal servers, and enhancing cybersecurity education for personnel.
Moreover, Visual Arts’ official e-commerce platform VA STORE has halted new order processing and is currently undergoing maintenance. For those who believe they may have been impacted, Visual Arts has set up a Dedicated Inquiry Channel where affected parties can submit questions directly (for contact information, please refer to the full document on X).