Japan Attacked by Hackers

The government of Japan has claimed that hacker attacks on its financial sector represent retaliation from China over a land dispute.




Recently, the sites of nineteen Japanese banks went offline due to hacker attacks originating from China. The National Police Agency announced that many of the targets had been named on hacking group websites. In the meantime, other outfits like the Tokyo Institute of Technology claimed they had been hacked and this resulted in the theft of personal information. Moreover, other government departments were also targeted during DDoS attacks.

Local press points out that a number of sites were altered, with a picture of the Chinese flag being demonstrated on one of them. Although the cyber attacks are believed to have ceased, the government of Japan is warning the entities to take some precautions against possible further threats.

The hacker attacks in question are thought to be protesting the nationalization of islands in the East China Sea – Diaoyu and Senaku – that were earlier privately owned. The decision of the Japanese authorities to buy the resource rich islands has caused outrage in China and consequently led to a number of anti-Japan protests.

In addition, such protests have forced a few Japanese companies operating in China to suspend factor production. For instance, Panasonic became one of the firms that had to choose to temporarily suspend production last week. The international giant admitted that workers in its Chinese component factories had simply sabotaged the company’s operations.