Cyberattacks on Japanese companies are estimated to have reduced the affected companies’ sales by approximately ¥154.2 billion and GDP by approximately ¥55.7 billion. The article reviews and reports examples of attacks and their impact.
Cyberattacks targeting Japanese companies fall broadly into two types: business disruption and information leakage. In business disruption incidents, companies including Asahi Group Holdings, ASKUL, Nichirei and IDCF Cloud have been affected, with orders and shipments halted. In information leakage incidents, large volumes of customer information have been leaked at companies including Times Car, skyticket and Daiwa Securities, expanding the losses and scope of the impact among related business partners.
A common feature of both types is the prevalence of cases in which contractors or business partners serve as the entry point, highlighting the difficulty of preventing damage by protecting one’s own systems alone. The total damage is estimated at ¥154.2 billion in lost sales and ¥55.7 billion in GDP losses. The impact on external “shared infrastructure” has also been identified, and the full extent of losses among business partners remains unclear.