Japan's space agency said Friday personal information and other data were breached after it was hit by cyberattacks last year.
The breached data include information related to projects jointly conducted with other entities but did not involve "sensitive information" related to the operation of rockets and satellites, according to the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency.
JAXA said it has apologized to those affected by the data leak, adding it is taking the issue very seriously as "a matter that could damage our trusting relationship" with parties concerned.
JAXA became aware of the incident last October after police notified it of the attacks, and the agency has been conducting an in-house investigation since then.
The agency additionally suffered multiple cyberattacks this year, but it said no data were leaked as it took steps to swiftly respond to vulnerabilities of the system and strengthened its monitoring of the entire network after last year's incident.
An investigation of the cyberattack discovered multiple unknown malware that made it difficult for JAXA to detect the penetration of the system, according to JAXA.
The attackers apparently exploited a vulnerability in the virtual private network that allows external connection to the internal system.
