Cyber security has been a long-time concern for the Japanese government as it continues to be the target of many cyber attacks in the past years. In a report by the Metropolitan Police Department, more than 30 Japanese ministries and defense-related firms have been cyber attacked, specifically with the use of primarily emails.
The attacks have pushed the government to strengthen its security against such incidents and to push forth a crackdown on perpetrators. Initial investigations by the police discovered that some of the viruses used to hack and infect computers used Chinese language in encrypting the virus. Oftentimes, the virus would also be traced back to Chinese servers, which means the attack could lead to leaking vital and sensitive information. However authorities who are investigating the matter are still unable to verify if delicate data has been obtained from the breach into the ministries’ computers. Results of the investigation showed that around 140 emails sent to computers contain viruses. In one particular example, the computer which was infected with a virus, was available for information hacking easily. In fact, the suspects accessed the said computer for more than 400,000 times in a period of one and a half years, presumably to obtain vital data on defense and security.
The suspects were “professional” in how they handled the “attacks” as it went on for a long time. Emails were sent in the guise of personal communications, which proved successful in infecting the computers. Authorities are looking at a Chinese organization, which is keen on getting information with regards to defense and diplomacy as the key suspect in the cases. Aside from government ministries, Japanese company Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. also became a victim of cyberattack in December 2010. The engineering firm is a known manufacturer of defense products.
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