The Japanese findings from ESET's survey of SMBs have been released, showing that 47% of Japanese companies experienced a cyber incident in the past year and 64% are concerned about attacks over the next 12 months. The main concerns include ransomware and malware exploiting AI, while inadequate monitoring stands out among the causes of actual damage.
The ESET SMB Cybersecurity Readiness Index 2026 Edition, released on 27 August, surveyed approximately 4,400 SMBs in 13 countries worldwide, including Japan, and assessed the situation facing IT and security decision-makers.
The survey found that 47% of Japanese companies had experienced a cyber incident within the past 12 months, while 64% were concerned about cyberattacks over the next year.
The threats Japanese companies were most concerned about were ransomware and malware at 49%, malware exploiting AI at 29%, and spyware at 24%. Meanwhile, the leading cause of actual breaches was inadequate security monitoring at 29%, followed by poor account management, legacy systems, weak passwords, and phishing.
Nagano Satoshi (永野智) pointed out that thorough implementation of basic measures is more important than focusing on advanced threats, and explained that the current state of Japanese companies' security measures is difficult to assess based on their self-evaluations. The survey found that 49% of Japanese companies considered their current security budgets insufficient, while also identifying a shortage of personnel and complexity-related challenges as barriers to advancing security measures.