Nihon Cyber Defence Co., Ltd.
HELP and ADVICE - Ransomware
Unfortunately, it is not a case of if, but when you will be impacted …
Nihon Cyber Defence’s (NCD) highly experienced team understands the challenges that the victims of these attacks face. We know that CEOs, CIOs and CISO’s and Senior Leadership Teams, need objective, helpful and timely advice to allow them to lead a successful recovery and mitigation.
Therefore, we have launched an advice service that gives victim organisations immediate access to the right guidance through industry experts, allowing organisations to prepare or respond to incidents.
We will assist in preparing, defending or responding to an attack and whilst our ransomware advice service is currently intended primarily for Japanese organisations, NCD has impressive experience working on ransomware and other forms of devastating cyber-attacks globally. You can learn more about what we offer here…
At Nihon Cyber Defence (NCD) we see the impact that cyber-attacks and in particular ransomware attacks can have. Whilst it has been major ransomware attacks that have dominated the headlines, the reality is that an enormous range of organisations are being impacted.
This increase in the number and sophistication of attacks has been driven by Ransomware as a Service (RaaS), that has made sophisticated cyber tools available to a growing range of criminal groups.
Dealing with a major cyber incident
For an organisation’s senior management, a ransomware attack is a major test of leadership. At NCD we believe that is important that senior managers, who are often under immense pressure, are supported through an incident. We have therefore – at the suggestion of several organisations that we have helped – are launching a cyber security advice service.
The key elements of this service are that it is:
- Confidential
- Cost effective
- Provides access to world-class cyber security experts
- For anyone in a leadership position
Purpose
The sole purpose of the NCD Advice Service is to help you recover from a Cyber Attack
Process
The way that this service works is:
- Companies that believe that they may have become the victim of a cyber-attack, contact NCD through our online portal (please do not use an email address that may have been compromised in the attack).
- A Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) is quickly put in place to ensure complete confidentiality.
- After an initial discussion with a native Japanese speaker, a secure video conferencing call will be set up between the company’s management and world-class cyber security experts who have dealt with many hundreds of cyber security incidents. This call can be in English or with Japanese translation.
- During the call senior managers CEO’s, CIOs, CFO’s, CISO’s or anyone else who finds themselves in a cyber incident management leadership role will have the opportunity to ask questions of these experts. These can be general questions around best and poor practice or specific technical questions.
Asking the right questions
For senior managers who do not have a technical background we will equip you with the questions to ask of your Incident Response team. They could include:
- Technical Understanding – How did the incident happen? Has the access and attack vector been identified and closed? Is the attacker off the network or still there? Is there still a risk of further attack
- Mitigation – What is the damage? What data has been affected or exfiltrated. How do we deal and mitigate this?
- Attribution and Investigation – Who was behind the attack? Why was the victim targeted? Is there an option to pay? Will we negotiate to identify the data exfoliated or to delay exposure? Do we know where the exposure will be … can we disrupt this? Can we recover the encrypted data? Should you involve law enforcement?
- Regulatory– What action is required from the data protection authorities or financial regulatory authorities?
- Comms – What is the internal and external Comms plan? Will this be protective or reactive (pending exposure)? How will we inform affected data subjects?
- Resilience – What is the plan to rebuild our network securely and how can we re-establish customer confidence and commercial reputation?
- Governance – What advice and guidance should be made available to the Board during an incident? How should the Incident be managed?
- Support – What external support do you require? As importantly, what support do we not require? How do we manage the expense of this support?
- Engagement with the hostile actors. Should we engage? What are the risks associated with paying the ransom? How should engagement be taken forward?
Whilst this is designed to be a one-off service, many of our clients have found our experts’ advice to be invaluable and ask us to remain engaged acting as a critical friend or to provide specialist technical services through the attack.
Other services
- Preparation– boards awareness, incident planning and exercising
- Monitoring – developing the deployment of the technical solutions pre and post in a cyber incident
Consultants
Our customers tell us that, having won the work, the major consulting companies use primarily junior staff to carry out the work. At NCD we only use consultants with many decades of experience.
Latest Ransomware News!!
CISA Announces Release of Thorium for Malware Analysis
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), in partnership with Sandia National Laboratories, released Thorium, an automated, scalable malware and forensic analysis platform that can integrate commercial, custom, and open-source analysis tools and enable cyber defenders to quickly assess malware threats and index forensic analysis results into a unified platform.Advanced persistent threats using malware continue to increase in volume and
Akira Group Attacks U.S. Defense Contractor
The Akira ransomware group carried out a significant cyberattack against a U.S. defense contractor, highlighting the growing risks to organizations involved in national security and defense. The attackers claimed to have stolen a substantial collection of sensitive data, including corporate records, contracts, nondisclosure agreements, and nearly 200 identification documents such as passports and driver’s licenses.The incident was linked to the
Qilin Ransomware Dominates the Month
The Qilin ransomware group emerged as the most dominant player in the global ransomware landscape, consolidating its position as a formidable cyber extortion actor. The group was responsible for approximately 73 confirmed victims, accounting for nearly 17% of the 423 ransomware disclosures tracked worldwide during the month. This marks the third time in four months that Qilin has led in
WestJet Cyber Attack Causes Travel Disruption
WestJet confirmed it had been the target of a sophisticated cyberattack that caused significant disruption for customers. The incident was first detected on June 13, when suspicious activity was identified across the airline’s digital systems. Although flight operations and aircraft safety were not compromised, customers encountered service interruptions, particularly when attempting to access bookings through the airline’s website and mobile
Lee Enterprises says cybersecurity incident cost millions
Lee Enterprises, a major U.S. regional newspaper publisher, continued to grapple with the aftermath of a ransomware attack attributed to the Qilin gang that disrupted operations across more than 75 newspapers and exfiltrated nearly 350 GB of sensitive data. The breach compromised information of about 39,779 individuals, including names, Social Security numbers, driver’s license details, financial and medical records, and
Supply Chain Attack on NPM Packages
In June 2025, a significant supply chain attack on the NPM ecosystem was uncovered, primarily affecting multiple React-Native Aria packages that had been tampered with to distribute a Remote Access Trojan (RAT). The malicious code was embedded in seemingly routine updates, beginning with @react-native-aria/focus version 0.2.10 and quickly spreading across related packages, many of which collectively record hundreds of thousands
