All it takes is a small earthquake in another part of Japan to make me think, “Should I update my to-go bag?” Similarly, when I hear about a サイバー攻撃 (蝉补颈产ā kōgeki, cyberattack), I think, “Should I update my passwords?”

Last month, brewing giant Asahi Group Holdings and office supplies seller Askul experienced a major サイバー攻撃. In fact, there have been lingering consequences from that strike and accompanying ランサムウェア攻撃 (ransamuwea kōgeki, ransomware attacks), which also hit lifestyle retailer Muji’s online stores.

The world of サイバー犯罪 (蝉补颈产ā hanzai, cybercrime) seems to be evolving as fast as our technologies, and in addition to widespread 暴露型 (bakuro-gata, exposure-type) attacks, more sophisticated 二重脅迫型 (nijū kyōhaku-gata, double-extortion schemes) are becoming common. (That is when a ランサムウェア攻撃 enciphers an organization’s data, allowing ハッカー [丑补办办ā, hackers] to demand two ransoms: one to first safeguard the data, and then another to restore it.)

Last September, the reported: 2025年上半期のランサムウェアの被害報告は116件で、半期の件数としては過去最多の2022年下半期に並んだ (Nisen nijūgo nen kami-hanki no ransamuwea no higai hōkoku wa hyaku jūrokken de, hanki no kensū to shite wa kako saita no nisen nijūni nen shimo-hanki ni naranda, The number of ransomware incidents reported in the first half of 2025 reached 116, tying the record for highest [number of attacks] set in the latter half of 2022).

When talking about サイバー犯罪 in Japanese, you may come across a lot of katakana versions of English words. There’s the obvious one, the サイバー (蝉补颈产ā, cyber) prefix that gets attached to other terms, as well as フィッシングメール (fisshingu mēru, phishing email), which is how ハッカー can break into a company’s systems, and 推測されやすいパスワード (suisoku sareyasui pasuwādo, weak and guessable passwords) that also allow for attacks.

So if your colleague says to you, 「不審なメールが届いた」 (Fushinna mēru ga todoita, I’ve received a suspicious email), you may want to warn them, 「開かない方がいいよ」 (Hirakanai hō ga ii yo) or 「開かないに越したことはないよ」 (Hirakanai ni koshita koto wa nai yo), both of which are different ways to say, “It’s better not to open it.”

While the ?ない方がいい (~nai hō ga ii) structure warns the listener that it would be better not to do something, the ～に越したことはない (~ni koshita koto wa nai) structure takes the idea a little further and can imply a “better safe than sorry” nuance.

The verb 越す (kosu) means “to surpass” and “to go over something,” and it can be used both transitively and intransitively, as in, どちらからお越しですか？ (Dochira kara okoshi desu ka, May I ask where you came from?) and 年を越す (toshi o kosu, to roll into a new year). The similar-sounding verb 越える (koeru, to overcome) is typically transitive.

Picking apart the ～に越したことはない structure, it can literally translate to “there is nothing that surpasses that,” so tacking it onto a...