Japanese companies saw 87 percent more ransomware attacks in the first half of 2022 than the previous year. There were a total of 114 attacks on the police in the first six months.
Most of the reported cases where attackers charge money to recover corporate data inaccessible by encryption have involved small and medium-sized businesses. Large corporations were affected in 36 cases.
Ransomware attacks are causing more and more problems
Toyota briefly halted production in March after a supplier came under attack. Soon after the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Japanese government warned that further attacks on IT systems were expected.
According to a survey, most victims of ransomware attacks have spent at least 10 million yen or more to investigate the damage and recover data. In 36 cases, companies were unable to restore their data despite data backup.
However, Japan’s National Police Agency warns that even backed-up data is encrypted during attacks and the damage could go beyond disrupting operations.
The agency also points out that the Emote software, which was rendered harmless in January 2021, is increasingly being used in attacks aimed at stealing credit card information since around February.
Attacks on Japanese police networks are on the rise
According to the police authority, there has also been a significant increase in the number of cyber attacks and suspicious access attempts on police networks. There are currently 7,800 attempts per IP address counted per day, 70 percent of which come from the United States, Great Britain, China and Russia.
Japan’s police prosecuted 5,889 cases of cybercrime nationwide in the first six months of the year, 492 more than the year before. Unauthorized computer use was involved in 233 cases.
Just a few days ago, a pro-Russian group attacked several government and metro operator websites in Japan.
