Japan’s largest telecom company NTT Docomo disrupted by DDoS attack
- Japanese telecom giant NTT Docomo was hit by a cyber attack
- Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack affected services for 12 hours
- Telecom companies are increasingly being targeted by cyber criminals
NTT Docomo, the largest mobile carrier in Japan, has reported that it has been hit by a cyber attack that attacked its systems by flooding networks with traffic from multiple sources, rendering its services unavailable.
The Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack hit systems on January 2 and services were unavailable for approximately twelve hours.
The company has more than 90 million subscribers and users were unable to access the company’s website, news platforms and mobile payment systems, but core communications and mobile services remained unaffected.
Telco Targets
“From approximately 5:27 a.m. on January 2, 2025, some services, including the goo portal and NTT Docomo services, became difficult to access. Access was restored at 4:10 PM, although updates to some content may still be delayed. We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience caused,” the company said confirmed in a statement.
The telecom giant has not yet confirmed who it believes was behind the attack, but there is speculation that it may have come from a ransomware group – possibly Randomwed.Vc – that was behind an attack on NTT in September 2023.
This is the latest in a series of attacks on telecommunications companies, including nine major US companies, targeted by the Chinese state-sponsored Salt Typhoon group – which reportedly targeted high-level targets within the US Treasury Department.
Japanese companies are also often the target of cyber attacks. Casio, Japan Airlines and Fujitsu were all hit in 2024, in addition to Japan’s largest port, which was hit by a ransomware attack in July that caused serious disruption.
DDoS attacks will increase by 30% by 2024 and are increasingly politically motivated, targeting critical infrastructure, government services and utilities around the world. These attacks caused widespread disruption, with 75% of newly established networks involved in DDoS attacks within the first 42 days of inception.
Via The record