Japan sees 25 billion cyberattacks in 2014: govt agency

[TOKYO] More than 25 billion cyberattacks on the Japanese government and other bodies were logged in 2014, an agency said on Tuesday, with 40 per cent of them traced to China.

The National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT), which has a network of a quarter of a million sensors, said there were 25.66 billion attempts to compromise systems, according to a report by Kyodo News.

The figure includes attacks aimed at testing the vulnerability of software used in servers.

The survey was first carried out in 2005, when it recorded just 310 million attempts to breach security.

NICT said an increasing number of the attacks it was seeing involve attempts to take over routers, security cameras and other systems connected to the Internet.

Of the cyberattacks the agency was able to trace, 40 per cent originated in China, while South Korea, Russia and the United States also figured prominently.

Compromised Internet security is an increasing risk for firms around the world and in all sectors.

A Russian report released on Monday said cyberattacks since 2013 have cost banks around the globe up to US$1 billion (S$1.4 billion).

Sony Pictures was the victim of a cyberattack last year in which embarrassing emails were leaked to the press in an incident US authorities blamed on North Korea.

Pyongyang was incensed over "The Interview", a film about a plot to assassinate the country's leader Kim Jong-Un.

AFP