Japan declares cyber emergency as AI tools let low-skilled hackers carpet-bomb companies with attacks

From the Newshound archive · first published 9 October 2026 · last updated 10 October 2026.

Japan has recorded more cyberattack incidents in the first nine months of 2026 than in the whole of 2025, prompting authorities to declare a cyber emergency and call on businesses to bolster their defences. Nine South Korean banks and two megachurches are also investigating breaches, while Japanese giants Daiwa Securities, SoftBank and convenience chain Lawson have all been hit. CrowdStrike identified a suspected 26-year-old China-based attacker behind the South Korean bank raids who, the firm assessed, could not have run the campaign without AI assistance.

Japan's cybersecurity incidents hit 86 in September alone — up 37% from July — with AI eliminating the language barriers that once protected Japanese firms from foreign hackers.

CrowdStrike says the China-based suspect deployed a Chinese-developed AI agent together with Anthropic's Claude Code, demonstrating that even low-skilled criminals can now run effective campaigns.

'Japan is essentially being subjected to carpet bombing,' warned Nobuo Miwa, president of Tokyo cybersecurity firm S&J Corp.