Japan faces surge of AI-powered cyberattacks on energy and forex
Japan is dealing with a surge of cyberattacks powered by artificial intelligence, hitting everything from government websites to major companies.
These attacks are moving quickly and have exposed serious gaps in digital security: recent breaches include a government energy site and an automated foreign exchange trading platform.
National Police Agency data possibly compromised
The finance and logistics sectors have been especially hard-hit. GMO Internet Group's cloud service, which supports forex trading, saw as many as 26,739 server environments may have been affected and unauthorized transactions go through.
Even the National Police Agency was not spared: an attack involving its cloud service provider, Arcadia, personal information belonging to around 125,000 police officers and staff members across 20 prefectural police forces may have been compromised.
Investigators identified traces of a Chinese-developed AI tool called Artex in attacks against several Japanese companies.
Japan activates active cyber defense system
To fight back, Japan has activated its active cyber defense system, basically letting it respond faster to threats, and is preparing emergency measures to strengthen the country's defenses against cyber threats.