Japanese Lens Maker Hoya Halts Production After Cyberattack

Japanese lens maker Hoya Corp. on Thursday said the production of several of its products have stopped after a system failure, which was “most likely caused by unauthorized access” to its servers.

Hoya said the company discovered a system discrepancy in one of its overseas offices on Saturday and confirmed the disruption despite its efforts to isolate affected servers.

The company is investigating whether any of its confidential or personal data had been compromised and is cooperating with authorities to resume production as soon as possible, it said in a statement.

Hoya’s consumer eyeglass lens unit, Hoya Vision Care Co., on Tuesday apologized on its website that it had stopped taking orders for lenses due to a group-wide system failure.

Hoya is the world’s second-largest eyeglass lens maker, with about 90% of its eyewear lens sales earned from outside of Japan, according to its latest annual report.

A Hoya spokesperson declined to say whether any of the company’s other optical products, including components for chipmaking equipment and hard disc drives, have been affected by the disruption.

(Reporting by Kantaro Komiya; editing by Jacqueline Wong and Tom Hogue)