Cyberattacks on Japanese retail, educational, and public-tax

Following the discovery of unauthorized access to internal systems on October 15, Geo and its parent company, Second Retailing, suspended several online services. While physical retail locations remained open, the company worked to determine the scope of the impact. Other entities, such as Golf Digest Online, confirmed specific data breaches involving employee and customer identifiers.

On October 19, the scope of disruptions expanded. Retailer Joshin announced its network was compromised, noting the “possibility of personal information leakage cannot be ruled out.” Additionally, the educational corporation Shudo Gakuen reported unauthorized access that potentially exposed names, addresses, and bank account information of faculty and partners.

New reports indicate a significant surge in attacks across various sectors. The hometown tax portal ‘Furusato Choice,’ operated by Trust Bank, suffered a massive leak of approximately 4.45 million pieces of personal information, including names, addresses, phone numbers, and hashed passwords. In the financial sector, Iwai Cosmo Securities reported that an attack on an external contractor led to unauthorized trading orders in seven accounts.

Security researchers at GMO Cyber Security by Ierae identified the use of ‘ARTEX,’ an AI-driven autonomous penetration testing tool, in attacks targeting roughly 80 Japanese companies. Experts warn this tool allows attackers to automate complex tasks, such as bypassing Web Application Firewalls. The impact has also reached the public sector, with potential data leaks reported in several prefectural police departments and a Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism subsidy program.