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!!
Orange Belgium Data Breach Impacts 850,000 Customers
Orange Belgium, a subsidiary of the global telecommunications group Orange SA, confirmed a significant cyberattack affecting approximately 850,000 customer accounts. The breach involved unauthorized access to an internal IT system, exposing personal data such as full names, phone numbers, SIM card numbers, PUK codes, and tariff plans. Importantly, sensitive information, including passwords, email addresses, or financial data was not compromised,
Air France and KLM customers’ personal details exposed via data breach
Air France KLM Group disclosed a data compromise incident affecting its customer base, traced to a breach at a third-party service provider that supported its contact center operations. The company confirmed detecting unusual activity on the external platform, after which it initiated an immediate response involving the vendor, cybersecurity experts, and relevant authorities.The exposed information primarily consisted of customer names,
Google’s Salesforce CRM Breach by ShinyHunters
Google disclosed that its Salesforce CRM environment had been compromised by the cybercriminal group ShinyHunters, exposing customer contact data from its small- and medium-sized business clients. The breach, which occurred in June 2025 but was revealed publicly in August, was executed through social engineering tactics, particularly voice phishing (vishing). Attackers impersonated trusted personnel to trick an employee into granting access,
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
France Travail Data Breach Exposes Personal Information of 340,000 Job Seekers
France Travail, the French national public employment agency, experienced a major data breach affecting approximately 340,000 job seekers. The compromise originated via unauthorized access to the Kairos application, a platform used by partner organizations to monitor job seekers’ training progress. Attackers exploited info-stealer malware on a partner system, bypassing the existing two-factor authentication, which allowed them to access sensitive personal
