Japan Urges Companies to Strengthen Cybersecurity Amid AI-Driven Attacks

Summary

Japan’s government has urged companies to treat cybersecurity as a core management responsibility after a series of AI-driven cyberattacks and large-scale personal-data breaches. Officials said repeated unauthorized access incidents could disrupt business operations and should be addressed through greater security investment, specialist staff and dedicated incident-response units. Companies were also asked to promptly share information about attack damage with the National Cyber Office or specialized security agencies so authorities can limit further harm and improve responses. The ruling Liberal Democratic Party separately called for stronger public-private coordination on national cyber defense. Masaaki Taira, the party’s AI policy chief, described the recent attacks as “saturation attacks,” in which AI can automate repeated assaults at massive scale. He advocated systems that automatically detect abnormal activity and stop damage from spreading after a breach but before sensitive data leaves the network. The article cites several recent incidents: about 6.6 million pieces of Times Car user data were exposed, while Daiwa Securities and FamilyMart also reported leaks. Japanese authorities are investigating the perpetrators, methods and possible links among the cases.