Cyberattacks detected against Japanese companies, mostly on their websites, reached about 475 million in October, the highest monthly total on record, a private-sector survey found on November 5. The figure is 2.5 times the same month a year earlier and about 21 million above September, which had been the previous high.
The pace has accelerated over the past few months, and high-performance AI that automates attacks may be driving the increase, according to the survey. The tally counts malicious traffic observed by Cyber Security Cloud, a Tokyo company that provides tools protecting about 20,000 websites, mainly corporate ones, from unauthorized access.
Monthly detections ran between 100 million and 200 million from January last year through May this year, then jumped into the 400-million range in June. They have stayed high since July, between 200 million and 400 million a month.
Leaks of millions of records at major companies have been disclosed on successive days, and at GMO Internet Group customer accounts were operated fraudulently. The figures confirm how often suspicious access is occurring as the damage spreads.