Japan will address the damage stemming from a cyber attack on a foreign exchange (FX) trading platform with a sense of urgency, but no new attacks have been detected, the nation’s finance minister said.
"Given how rapidly these incidents and circumstances evolve, we will continue to call on financial authorities to respond appropriately and swiftly as developments unfold,” Satsuki Katayama told reporters on Oct 27.
"There’s a sense of crisis shared globally” with regard to cybersecurity, she added, citing discussions with her Group of Seven counterparts in Bangkok last week.
Katayama spoke after dozens of businesses in Japan reported breaches to their systems and potential leaks of client data in recent weeks – at a time when concerns are mounting around the world about the use of artificial intelligence (AI) to take advantage of cybersecurity vulnerabilities.
In one of the latest incidents, IT services provider GMO Internet Group reported unauthorised access to its foreign-exchange trading platform, with some customers flagging transactions they hadn’t initiated.
Katayama said five FX firms had reported customers affected by the GMO incident, adding that she had received no reports of new unauthorised transactions.
GMO sought government assistance on Oct 24 to help disrupt the source of the attacks. Chief executive officer Masatoshi Kumagai said in a blog post that the company had received a ransom demand for US$50mil (RM204mil) in cryptocurrency, which it refused to pay.
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi instructed her cabinet on Oct 26 to draw up emergency measures by the end of next week in response to a wave of cyberattacks targeting Japanese companies.
At a regular press conference on Oct 27, economy minister Ryosei Akazawa said the government would offer smaller companies free consultation services on boosting their cybersecurity.
Cyberattacks and the discovery of vulnerabilities in PHP programming language used in some websites have made a swift response an urgent priority for businesses and the government. Several political parties called for stronger measures last week.
In recommendations submitted to Takaichi on Oct 23, the ruling Liberal Democratic Party said the recent wave of cyberattacks constituted a serious crisis that could be described as "the eve of a cyber emergency,” threatening Japan’s national security. It warned that "AI cyber saturation attacks,” in which artificial intelligence automatically identifies system vulnerabilities and launches attacks simultaneously, could occur in the near future.
The party also proposed creating a response headquarters led by the prime minister’s office, while accelerating efforts to improve the capabilities of the Self-Defence Forces and police and strengthen cooperation with allies. In the financial sector, it called for the public and private sectors to work together to steadily implement defensive measures.
Masaaki Taira, a former digital minister who led the drafting of the recommendations, said attackers are using AI to mount attacks faster and on a broader scale than before, while companies are still relying on people to defend themselves. "Structurally, it has become AI versus humans,” he said. The government needs to work with leading AI companies to build a system capable of using AI for defence, he added.
One common concern is securing specialist personnel. With highly skilled private-sector cybersecurity professionals such as white-hat hackers in mind, the LDP called for the creation of a new personnel and compensation system that would "break through the rigidities of the civil-service system and enable compensation commensurate with market value.”
Behind these proposals is a recognition that government salaries are insufficient compared with those in the private sector. According to the National Personnel Authority, the government can offer annual compensation of as much as 33.8mil yen (RM875,887) under its fixed-term appointment system to private-sector personnel with specialised expertise. The latest data show 490 people are employed under the system, but none is receiving compensation at the highest level on a monthly-pay basis.
"Annual compensation of 33.8mil yen (RM875,887) is by no means low, but there are limits to how far that level of pay can attract people who are already highly valued in the private sector,” said Sumio Morita, senior managing director at human-resources consultancy Towers Watson. – Bloomberg
