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Japanese companies are preparing to compensate customers following a series of cyberattacks that disrupted internet services and raised concerns about cybersecurity risks and economic stability.
GMO Internet Group (9449.T), a major provider of online financial services, said it would compensate customers for losses caused by unauthorised access to its foreign exchange trading service. The company will also pay every customer 5,000 yen, or about $32, as a goodwill gesture.
Chief Executive Officer Masatoshi Kumagai announced the payments in a blog post on Sunday.
“The internet itself is now starting to break down,” Kumagai wrote. His group operates businesses across internet infrastructure, financial services and cryptocurrency trading.
GMO said it received a ransom demand from a party believed to be responsible for the cyberattack. The attackers also threatened to disclose company and customer information if the demand was not met.
The company said it would not pay the ransom. Instead, it will work with police and other authorities to respond to the incident.
GMO will also provide customers with a free alternative service for six months.
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The company said it could not yet estimate the financial impact of customer compensation and goodwill payments.
Kumagai acknowledged that security weaknesses had contributed to the incident. Company-employed ethical hackers had identified vulnerabilities, but the response was not sufficiently extensive or swift, he wrote.
GMO shares fell 15% to a four-month low on Friday, while Tokyo’s benchmark stock index rose 0.5%. The company had a market value of approximately $2.6 billion at Friday’s close.
The Japanese government said on Friday it would establish a team to simulate cyberattacks using artificial intelligence (AI). The initiative aims to identify weaknesses in technology systems and help organisations strengthen their defences.
The announcement came as companies worked to address vulnerabilities in the PHP programming language, which supports a substantial portion of the internet.
Government and corporate websites in Japan, Europe and other regions went offline last week after the disclosure of critical PHP vulnerabilities triggered millions of hacking attempts, according to the report.
Experts warn that AI is helping cybercriminals automate activities such as scanning software for weaknesses and creating phishing campaigns. These capabilities can make attacks faster, cheaper and more difficult to detect.
“The internet is increasingly being transformed into a tool that malicious actors use to threaten and rob people,” Kumagai said.
He has urged Japan’s public and private sectors to work together to strengthen cyberdefences. The country’s newly introduced cyberdefence framework could include measures to neutralise threats by targeting hostile servers.
The recent incidents have highlighted weaknesses in companies’ ability to protect large volumes of customer information. They have also raised concerns about the potentially significant costs of improving cybersecurity.
“Companies already have standard security measures in place, so if they want to strengthen them further, there is a possibility that the additional cost burden could be quite substantial,” said Shoichi Arisawa, an analyst at IwaiCosmo Securities.
TrendAI data showed 723 cybersecurity incidents in Japan in the year to October 20, exceeding the annual totals recorded in both 2025 and 2024.
However, Satoshi Nagano, president of cybersecurity firm ESET Japan, said the figures may reflect both an increase in threats and improved reporting of incidents that previously went undetected or undisclosed.
“Reports may reflect both the threats organizations face and greater visibility into incidents that would previously have gone undetected, been underinvestigated, or remained undisclosed,” Nagano said.
Park24 (4666.T), the operator of the Times car-sharing service, announced on Friday that it would pay customers 3,000 yen following a personal data breach.
The company also said it would stop retaining images of identity documents after completing registration verification.
Park24 expects to record an extraordinary loss of 5.5 billion yen related to its response to the attack and customer compensation.
The incidents underline the growing financial and operational risks cyberattacks pose to businesses, as companies face pressure to protect customer information and maintain trust in online services.
