TOKYO - A Japanese cybersecurity firm has identified distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks targeting 46 companies and organizations in Japan, local media reported Sunday.

Trend Micro identified and analyzed networks called botnets that were highly likely used in the DDoS attacks, in which massive amounts of data are sent to websites or servers to make them crash, public broadcaster NHK reported.

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Forty-six businesses and organizations in Japan came under such attacks between Dec 27 and Jan 9, according to the company.

Major Japanese companies including Japan Airlines, MUFG Bank and NTT Docomo were the targets of the cyberattack from late December, resulting in glitches in their systems or disrupted access to their websites.

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Katsuyuki Okamoto at Trend Micro said while it is difficult to determine the purpose of the attacks, they may have been carried out for surveillance in preparation for a full-fledged attack.