Japan trade agency, Japanese firms face unauthorized access

The Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO) temporarily suspended its website operations on Monday after discovering unauthorized access. The agency announced later that 743 records, containing personal data like email addresses, had been compromised. The website, which offers overseas economic and trade information and aids in recruiting companies, was offline since Saturday following the breach detected on Wednesday.

Several Japanese corporations also reported security breaches around the same time. H2O Retailing Corp. and Hankyu Hanshin Department Stores Inc. discovered unauthorized access to their reservation system, leading to the exposure of about 1.26 million customers' personal information, including names, addresses, and phone numbers. No misuse of the data has been confirmed.

2nd Retailing Co., Ltd., a second-hand store operator, and Joshin Corp., an electronics retailer, halted some of their online services after detecting unauthorized access to their systems. Ymirlink Inc., an email distribution service provider, reported that 9 million records, including email addresses, may have been leaked following unauthorized access.

Trustbank Inc., which operates a portal for the government's hometown tax system, suspected a breach, and Toho Holdings Co., a pharmaceutical wholesaler, found a database used by one of its subsidiaries had been accessed.

Eva Chen, CEO of security firm Trend Micro Inc., addressed the series of data breaches at a press conference. Chen warned that stolen personal information could be misused to gain access to corporate systems, escalating the risk of cyberattacks against businesses. She added that the information could be sold by fraud groups and other cybercriminals and exploited in phishing emails or as a pathway for further breaches. Chen emphasized that artificial intelligence is being employed to facilitate cyberattacks.