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Capcom Forced Employees To Work After Cyber Attack Even Amidst Covid Concerns

Capcom-Forced-Employees-To-Work-After-Cyber-Attack-Even-Amidst-Covid-Concerns

Capcom allegedly forced its workers to go to work even though Japan had declared a state of Emergency.

In November last year Video Game giant Capcom was hit with a major Ransomware attack, where a Terabyte of data was stolen. Fast forward to January this year, and a state of emergency was declared in Osaka (where Capco’s Headquarters are based), amidst another wave of Covid-19.

The news was brought to light by a whistleblower via a report by the Business Journal that claims to detail “actual conditions” for the game developers at the company.

According to the report Capcom was unable to ensure a secure external network for remote work and as such, they felt they had no choice but to ask their staff to physically come in to the office.

There was reportedly an e-mail sent to employees from Capcom stating: “We are abandoning the remote network for the time being, and it was decided there is no choice but to come to work.”

The report does state though that while the complaints are not a clear violation of the country’s Labor Standards Act, they do illustrate questionable practices within the Japanese game industry.

Capcom has come back with a reply to these claims saying that they take the health and safety of their staff seriously and that they had a few measures in place to ensure said safety.

Capcom Forced Employees To Work After Cyber Attack Even Amidst Covid Concerns

Such measures include: staggering work hours and implementing telecommunication. When employees are at the office they are obligated to wear a mask and social distancing is enforced. They added that all employees have their temperature checked prior to entering the building as well.

While these measures are all good and well there are a few things that are concerning such as the fact that flexible work hours depend on your rank in the company. Another major concern is that there is no union nor is one allowed within Capcom.

Capcom is adamant that they do follow the Japanese Labour Law and they do listen to employees’ concerns. They have also stated that they try to create an atmosphere that takes the employee’s rights into consideration.

Apparently, a senior Capcom executive told employees that while 70% of Japan is working from home, 30 % needs to continue to work to support the Japanese economy and that Capcom employees are in that 30%.

The risk of Cyberattacks are on the increase due to many employees in the gaming industry working from home, but do you risk your employee’s health to save your own data? Companies like Square Enix have reportedly offered permanent work-from-home plans.

This is a tricky situation as the health and lives of human beings are at stake here but having said that, so is extremely sensitive data. So what will the big companies in the gaming industry do to handle this major issue?