Japan’s Police Agency suspects PLA of directing party members to attack Japanese networks, with Aerospace and other institutions as victims.
The Japan Broadcasting Association (NHK) reported Tuesday that some 200 Japanese research institutions and companies, including the Japan Aerospace Agency (JAXA) and defense-related companies, have been subjected to massive cyber attacks. The report cited Japanese Police Department sources as saying that the investigation found that the hackers behind the attacks were not ruled out to be the Chinese Communist People’s Liberation Army. (Fang Dehao reports)
The Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department reportedly plans to issue documents on Tuesday (20) to prosecute a Chinese Communist Party member living in Japan for allegedly contracting with a server rental company under an alias for cyber attacks.
The Japan Aerospace Agency was hit by a cyber attack in 2016, according to investigators, and when the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Agency investigated, it suspected the attack involved a Japanese server. The server was rented by a local Chinese man in his 30s. The man involved was a member of the Chinese Communist Party, who allegedly rented the server five times under false names and gave the server data to the Chinese hacker group “Tick” for use.
The investigation also found that another Chinese man was suspected of renting the server under a false name under the instructions of the PLA’s “Unit 61419”, which specializes in cyber attacks. The source said that the two people who rented the Japanese server have left Japan, and authorities are looking for a man in his 30s who is suspected of falsifying personal electronic system records.
The Japan Aerospace Agency (JAXA) responded by acknowledging that it had been attacked by a network, saying that someone had accessed the website without permission, but stressed that no national information had been leaked.
Experts: Chinese Communist Party targets aviation and space-related technology
The report also said that the investigation was led by the “Cyber Attack Countermeasures Center” set up by the Police Department four years ago, and it is estimated that the center has about 100 agents with specialized knowledge, focusing on overseas cyber attacks on government agencies and enterprises. The authorities said that in the past year, Japan’s cyber attacks reached a record 6,506 cases, compared with 1,692 cases in 2016, an increase of nearly three times, including the outflow of personal data of 8,000 employees of Mitsubishi Electric last year, there is also research and development of armaments information was stolen.
The report also quoted Hiroki Iwai, an expert familiar with cybersecurity, as saying, “Under the command of the Chinese Communist People’s Liberation Army, China’s Ministry of State Security and other military and intelligence agencies, a number of private companies appear to be conducting cyber attacks, one of which is a hacking group called Tick. It appears to have started its activities in the early 2000s and is conducting sophisticated cyber attacks against aerospace-related research organizations.”
Iwai also said that because of the growing international space race, there is no doubt that China wants to obtain information that can be used for military purposes, such as information related to artificial satellites. He expects cyber attacks from China to continue, so it is important to be aware of the risks of message theft in advance and take steps to minimize damage even if information is compromised.
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