Japanese premier pledges to tackle cybersecurity issues as online attacks rise

Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi on Friday pledged to address cybersecurity threats as cyberattacks increase.

The ruling Liberal Democratic Party submitted emergency proposals to Takaichi to counter the growing threat.

Cyberattacks targeting domestic companies continue to cause leaks of sensitive personal information, making cybersecurity an issue requiring urgent, all-out efforts by the public and private sectors, Takaichi said in a social media statement.

The recommendations call for accelerating cybersecurity measures across government agencies.

The government will establish the necessary framework to centralize information collection and analysis, issue timely alerts to the public and businesses, and coordinate responses across relevant agencies to counter the threats, she said.

On Wednesday, developers of PHP, a widely used programming language that powers websites and online services, released emergency security updates addressing two critical vulnerabilities that could allow attackers to run malicious code on affected servers without login credentials.

The vulnerabilities were each assigned a severity score of 9.2 out of 10, and developers urged organizations to install the updates immediately.

Separately, major Japanese parcel delivery company Sagawa Express Co. said Friday that personal information, including names and addresses, linked to up to 53.23 million shipments may have been compromised following unauthorized access to its online parcel tracking service, according to Kyodo News.