Tokyo (CNN) -- Hackers have stolen personal information from over 1.2 million customers of the Japanese gaming company SEGA, according to a company statement.
The breach occurred Friday and targeted user data from subsidiary "SEGA Pass", which is operated by Britain-based SEGA Europe Limited (SEL).
The service was "illegally accessed from outside and personal information of all 1,290,755 customers of the service... were brought outside of the system," according to SEGA. The information included names, birth dates, e-mail addresses and "encoded passwords," the statement said.
But the company emphasized that it "does not hold any confidential information such as credit card information." SEGA says it shut down service as soon as it confirmed the illegal access and sent affected customers an e-mail apology.
The company says it is investigating the cyber break-in.
SEGA published the statement explaining the data hacking in Japanese on the Japanese website only. English language users were greeted only with messages that the SEGA Pass service was momentarily down.
"Sorry, the website is temporarily unavailable due to Maintenance work," one message says. "We will be up and running again soon!"
SEGA advertises its privacy measures on a banner at the bottom of its website, which reads "ESRB Privacy Certified". The banner links to a privacy statement, which touts user information safeguards including "the storage of data on secure servers or computers inaccessible by modem."
The breach occurred Friday and targeted user data from subsidiary "SEGA Pass", which is operated by Britain-based SEGA Europe Limited (SEL).
The service was "illegally accessed from outside and personal information of all 1,290,755 customers of the service... were brought outside of the system," according to SEGA. The information included names, birth dates, e-mail addresses and "encoded passwords," the statement said.
But the company emphasized that it "does not hold any confidential information such as credit card information." SEGA says it shut down service as soon as it confirmed the illegal access and sent affected customers an e-mail apology.
The company says it is investigating the cyber break-in.
SEGA published the statement explaining the data hacking in Japanese on the Japanese website only. English language users were greeted only with messages that the SEGA Pass service was momentarily down.
"Sorry, the website is temporarily unavailable due to Maintenance work," one message says. "We will be up and running again soon!"
SEGA advertises its privacy measures on a banner at the bottom of its website, which reads "ESRB Privacy Certified". The banner links to a privacy statement, which touts user information safeguards including "the storage of data on secure servers or computers inaccessible by modem."