Japan Declares Cybersecurity Emergency, Experts Nod to AI

Japan has declared a cybersecurity emergency, following a spate of attacks on its companies in recent weeks. Some experts are already pointing the finger at AI.

Over 20 major firms, including convenience store chain Lawson and car rental operator Times Car, have reported attacks, according to The Financial Times, leading to the loss of tens of millions of pieces of customer data. This included 1.67 million customer email addresses from the booking system of JR East, the country’s largest rail operator.

Japanese cybersecurity minister Toshiharu Furukawa said the situation was “extremely critical” at a meeting at the National Cybersecurity Strategy Headquarters. Meanwhile, Masaaki Taira, head of the NCSH, called the situation an “emergency in cyberspace.”

Masaki Hiraoka, managing director for north-east Asia at cybersecurity group Blackpanda, told the FT that even if the recent spate of attacks hasn’t been explicitly linked to AI use, the technology is enabling hackers to carry out attacks that once required time-consuming investigations ahead of time.

“Smaller services that previously weren’t worth the effort could become viable targets,” he said.

Meanwhile, Nobuo Miwa, president of Tokyo-based cybersecurity firm S&J Corp, compared the recent attacks to “carpet bombing” in a statement to Reuters. Miwa also posited that AI tools may be allowing foreign hackers to overcome language barriers that might have previously made it harder to attack Japanese firms.