An email arrived from a usual contact.
The email wasn't from someone she didn't know. Cybercrime: Malice that invades daily life Part 1 Anyone can be targeted, not just someone special. In everyday life, there's an invisible entry point. Using publicly available information as a clue, we will trace its quiet progress and the consequences that appear in daily life. From a familiar sender That morning, Ichika checked her company's email as usual. She was an office administrator at a small company, handling tasks such as invoice processing, communication with business partners, and minor internal coordination. While it wasn't a particularly special job, there were several tasks that couldn't be done without her. Among the emails she received was one from a business partner's representative. The subject line read, "Shared file updated." The body of the email contained a brief message asking her to check the updated file and a single link. She had been working with this representative for many years, exchanging emails multiple times to confirm invoices and discuss delivery deadlines. Ichika opened the link...
A Japanese woman, Ichika, received an email from a familiar business partner with a link to update a shared file. She clicked the link, entered her login credentials, and unknowingly allowed a third party to access her email account. Over 1,000 phishing emails were sent from her account to contacts within and outside her organization.
The incident is based on a report by the Information Processing Promotion Agency (IPA) and highlights the threat of "lateral phishing," where attackers use compromised email accounts to spread attacks. In 2025, the Anti-Phishing Working Group received 2,454,297 phishing reports, a 43% increase from 2024.
Written by urgent.news from Dev.to's report — not a translation of it. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
