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Sumitomo Life Insurance data breach

Was I affected?

Sumitomo Life Insurance confirmed a breach affecting about 80,000 people, exposing names, addresses, phone numbers and dates of birth. You may be affected if you use or have used Sumitomo Life Vitality trial or corporate editions, or Vitality Smart (including the employee-benefit type). Vitality linked to an insurance policy is not affected. Sumitomo Life is identifying affected customers and runs an inquiry line at 0120-550-997.

Sumitomo Life Insurance breach facts
AnnouncedNov 9, 2026
When it happenedUnauthorized access confirmed at contractor NTT Data on November 2, 2026
CountryJapan
People affected80,000
Data exposedNames, Addresses, Phone numbers, Dates of birth, Email addresses and Payment card numbers
Through a vendorNTT Data
StatusConfirmed by the company or a regulator filing

What happened

Japanese life insurer Sumitomo Life said on November 9, 2026 that customer data leaked after an outsider accessed a system run for it by contractor NTT Data. The leak covers about 80,000 current and past users of the stand-alone versions of its Vitality health program (Vitality trial and corporate editions and Vitality Smart, including the employee-benefit type). Leaked items are some of: name, address, phone number, date of birth, email address and, for about 1,000 people, a partly masked credit card number. Insurance policy data and Vitality step-count data were not included. NTT Data found the intrusion on November 2 and cut off outside access on November 3; Sumitomo Life has paused new sign-ups for those services and says no misuse had been seen.

What should I do?

  1. Be wary of emails, texts and calls claiming to be from Sumitomo Life or NTT Data; Sumitomo Life says it never asks for passwords or PINs by email or phone.
  2. Check your credit card statements for charges you don't recognize, especially if you paid for Vitality Smart by card.
  3. Expect scams that know your name, address and birthday, and don't confirm personal details in reply to them.
  4. If you have questions, call Sumitomo Life's inquiry line (0120-550-997) from its official website rather than numbers given in a message.

How Korea fines a breach this size

For comparison, Korea's privacy regulator fined Tiffany Korea ₩2.4 billion (about US$1.6M) in February 2026 over a breach of 4,600 people. Korean law fines the security failure itself, not only misuse of the data.

Data breach fines: Korea vs Japan, the US and Australia →

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Sources