Article · AI translation
IT Home reported on October 26 that, according to Reuters, a succession of cyberattacks disrupted online services and raised market concerns about economic stability, prompting several Japanese companies to begin paying compensation to users.
GMO Internet Group announced that it would compensate customers for losses caused by an unauthorized intrusion into its foreign exchange trading service. Chairman Masatoshi Kumagai said in a blog post on Sunday that all customers would receive an “initial goodwill payment” of 5,000 yen (IT Home note: approximately 212.7 yuan at the current exchange rate).
The Japanese government announced last Friday that it would set up a special team to use AI to simulate cyberattacks and identify vulnerabilities in various technical systems. Many internet services currently rely on the PHP programming language, and industry organizations are urgently addressing the security risks posed by a major PHP vulnerability.
At last Friday’s close, GMO had a market value of $2.6 billion (approximately 17.361 billion yuan at the current exchange rate). After the news broke, its shares plunged nearly 14%, hitting a four-month low, while Tokyo’s benchmark index rose 0.3% over the same period.
Japanese companies are facing a succession of cyberattacks. Experts say AI automates attack processes such as vulnerability scanning and phishing, making cybercrime faster and cheaper to carry out and harder to detect.
A critical PHP vulnerability disclosed earlier prompted millions of attempted attacks, leaving numerous government and corporate websites in Japan, Europe and elsewhere inaccessible last week.
GMO deployed a cyberdefense system earlier this month and, after the incident, applied to the Japanese government for authorization to use cyberdefense response measures. The plan includes countermeasures such as proactively attacking adversaries’ servers to eliminate threats.
Masatoshi Kumagai wrote: “Now is the time for the public and private sectors to work together to protect Japan’s cybersecurity.” The sprawling internet group operates in internet infrastructure, financial services and cryptocurrency trading.
GMO said it had received a ransom demand from a suspected attacker, who threatened to leak company and customer information unless a ransom was paid. GMO said it would not comply with the demand and would work with police and relevant authorities to handle the incident. The company will also provide customers with a free alternative service for six months. It cannot yet estimate the impact of the goodwill payments and compensation for losses on its reported profits.
Weaknesses in user data protection exposed
The scale of the recent attacks has exposed clear shortcomings in Japanese companies’ protection of vast amounts of customer data. TrendAI data show that 723 cybersecurity incidents had been recorded this year as of October 20, exceeding the totals for the full years of 2024 and 2025.
Satoshi Nagano, president of ESET Japan, said: “The rise in reported cases shows, on one hand, that organizations face more threats; on the other, it also means that many security incidents that were previously hard to detect, inadequately investigated or kept secret are now more likely to come to light.”
Park24, which operates the Times shared parking service, announced last Friday that it would pay users 3,000 yen (approximately 127.6 yuan at the current exchange rate) in compensation following a personal information leak. The company said it would no longer retain photos of identity documents after registration verification is complete. It expects incident response and compensation expenses to result in an extraordinary loss of 5.5 billion yen (approximately 234 million yuan at the current exchange rate).
A Moody’s Ratings report said that companies with ample funds can increase security spending to offset rising cybersecurity risks. “Companies with inadequate patch update mechanisms will find themselves increasingly on the back foot, especially those with vast digital networks and a very large attack surface.”