Last month in March, Toei Animation announced they had been hit with an intruder in their system who caused massive damage. This affected production of several currently airing anime including One Piece, Dragon Quest, Delicious Party Precure, and Digimon Ghost Game. I did a full article covering the situation which I’ll link right here for the interested. Now today I’m once again returning to share new details that are emerging regarding the story as well as the plans for Toei moving forward.
According to reports from Japan’s very own NHK, the hack turned out to be a ransomware situation. For the uninitiated, this refers to when attackers use malware to lock out users from being able to access their own files/data, which are then continued to be held hostage unless the user pays a ransom. Extreme attacks can even lock a user out of their entire system. NHK stated that their sources within Toei revealed they are still investigating the details of the hack and that some things may not be recoverable. One source at Toei even allegedly said that they’re still trying to just get everything back to normal. Obviously big companies are never going to reveal the full story on how much damage attackers were able to inflict, but the fact that we even got this much probably indicates that this whole ordeal was and still is a huge mess.
Not so fun when YOU aren't the pirate, huh Luffy?
Fortunately this doesn’t appear to be referencing the anime as all four are supposed to be returning with new episodes starting on April 16-17th. However, apparently progress on the movie side of things didn’t come out so unscathed. The upcoming film Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero has been indefinitely delayed as the hack is still causing production issues for the movie. The unclear timeline makes me wonder just how long it will take, or if it will even be possible for Toei to recover what was lost regarding the film. The original release date of April 22 for Japan was pushed back and there is no current release date in sight.
On the brightside, was anyone keeping up with Dragonball still anyway?
Thankfully I’ve never personally had to deal with anything ransomware-related, but trust me I’ve had nightmares about such a situation. I’m already a prideful piece of shit, and I’m also a cheapskate piece of shit (for the most part). Sitting there seeing a pop up that says “Hey dumbass, pay us $1,000 or you’ll never get your PC back” might make me mad enough to where I simply say damn I lost this time around, scrap the PC for parts, and start again fresh. Especially since there is no guarantee the hacker will actually restore your access to your system/data after you’ve paid. They got what they wanted at that point. Are you excited that these anime are back on track? Have you or someone you know ever had to deal with a ransomware attack? Are you disappointed about the movie’s pushback? Find the treasure in the grand line, go Ultra Instinct, and keep your data safe in the comments below!
