Japan Declares Cybersecurity Emergency: AI Cyberattacks Hit 14 Million People and 495 Businesses

Now Japan is scrambling to respond as AI makes it easier for hackers to target businesses at scale.

On October 8, ransomware struck IDC Frontier, a SoftBank-owned cloud provider, disrupting access to data held by 495 client organisations.

Within days, Japan’s cybersecurity leadership convened an emergency meeting, and officials ordered government ministries to strengthen their defences.

The crisis comes amid a wave of breaches involving more than 14 million citizens, including millions of exposed customer records, email addresses and identity documents.

JR Kyushu reported another 1.3 million email records potentially exposed.