Japanese local governments suffer information leaks and home pages paralyzed due to series of cyber attacks

(Tokyo = Yonhap News) Correspondent Cho Seong-mi = As cyber attacks exploiting artificial intelligence (AI) technology are increasing globally, Japanese local governments that have been hacked are increasingly struggling to provide public services.

According to Japanese local governments on the 14th, the server of an information technology (IT) company located in Osaka, which is entrusted by the local government to send disaster prevention-related information to local residents by email, was exposed to unauthorized access.

The company announced that up to approximately 3.136 million email addresses may have been compromised.

In addition to email addresses, approximately 100,000 user phone numbers were reportedly leaked.

Accordingly, Tachikawa City in Tokyo, Tomiya City in Miyagi Prefecture, Shiso City in Hyogo Prefecture, Okayama City in Okayama Prefecture, and Oita Prefecture suspended email sending services related to disaster prevention services.

In Oita Prefecture, in addition to the personal information of disaster prevention information notification users, it was estimated that about 10,000 pieces of personal information of prefectural government officials may have been leaked.

In addition, many local governments appear to have requested this company to send disaster prevention information, and Japan's Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications is receiving reports from affected local governments and is assessing the situation.

Additionally, Kodaira City in Tokyo has been unable to access the city's website properly for several days as the cloud server of the company entrusted with website maintenance and management suffered a cyber attack.

Although it has not been confirmed whether the personal information entered by citizens has been leaked, there have been disruptions in business through the website, such as various electronic applications and reservations for public facilities.

In Japan, as cyber attacks against large distribution and railroad companies and rental car and reservation agencies that require a lot of users' personal information have increased significantly, the Japanese government has ordered its companies and public institutions to strengthen measures against information technology (IT) system vulnerabilities.