일본 기업 4곳 사이버공격에…“GDP 5천억원 손실 추산”

A new report by the Nippon Research Center revealed that four major Japanese companies suffered significant cyberattacks, leading to an estimated loss of 500 billion yen (5 trillion yen) in domestic GDP. The report, titled "Economic Losses from Cyber Attacks on Japanese Companies," highlighted how such attacks not only damage business activities but also impact individual consumer spending, causing substantial damage to Japan's economy.

Last September until late 2022, Japanese companies were targeted in several cyberattacks, including a breach in the car-sharing service "Timez," with 660,000 records being exposed, and the travel booking site "Skyicket" with 1,464,000 records compromised. Additionally, Daiwa Securities, a major financial institution, faced a cyberattack, with 220,000 customer records breached.

These "information leakage" incidents can lead to privacy violations, erosion of corporate trust, and customer attrition, along with potential secondary financial crimes. For instance, the car-sharing service "Times" had to issue special re-issuance of driver's licenses to 1.6 million license holders after their information was leaked.

On the other hand, "disruption" cyberattacks directly impact corporate operations. The Nippon Research Center cited a study of four companies, including ASAHI Group Holding, Content Company Gado, Office and Household Goods Company Asukuru, and Logistics Company Nitech, that experienced a combined 1.542 trillion yen (15.4 billion USD) in revenue loss due to cyberattacks.

The report estimated a total GDP loss of 556.8 billion yen (47.28 billion USD) considering both direct losses and the cascading effects of supply chain disruptions. These figures take into account the potential recovery from other transactions but still leave room for the possibility of loss recovery through alternative means.

For example, ASAHI Group was hit by a cyberattack in September 2022, disrupting its orders, shipments, and delivery systems. It took nearly six months for the company to fully recover, managing to handle transactions through "paper invoices" due to partial system failure. ASAHI Group reported a 20% decrease in sales from the previous year between October and December 2022, reflecting the impact of the cyberattack.

Similarly, office and household goods company Asukuru took over three months to fully recover from a ransomware attack in October 2022, which affected its logistics systems, caused a breakdown in operations, and resulted in significant financial losses.