Cyber-attacks spread across Japan from Taiji dolphin hunt town
http://ajw.asahi.com/article/behind_news/social_affairs/AJ201511130062
Cyber-attacks spread across Japan from Taiji dolphin hunt town
November 13, 2015
THE ASAHI SHIMBUN
Police are looking into an onslaught of cyber-attacks that apparently started over the Taiji dolphin hunt and have spread to media outlets and other unrelated organizations in Japan.
Dozens of Japanese websites were rendered nearly inaccessible after an enormous volume of data was sent to their servers through DDoS attacks, short for “distributed denial of service.”
Self-proclaimed members of the Anonymous international network of hackers said they were responsible for at least 37 cyber-attacks on Japanese websites as of Nov. 11.
Some victims have consulted police, who are now collecting information on the attacks to determine if they constitute forcible obstruction of business.
“We are still at the stage of establishing what actually occurred,” said a senior official with Tokyo’s Metropolitan Police Department.
Japan’s whaling practices and dolphin hunt, which have long drawn criticism from animal rights activists in the United States, Australia and Europe, were the apparent trigger behind the cyber-attacks.
A Twitter post saying it is time for Japan to stop slaughtering whales and dolphins appeared on Oct. 22, the day after the government of Taiji, a town known for its annual dolphin drive hunt in Wakayama Prefecture, came under a cyber-attack.
The tweet was from a member of Anonymous, which claimed responsibility for the attack.
On Oct. 23, another tweet said all of Japan will be targeted unless the Japanese government changes its ways. The target list disclosed on Twitter included Taiji and many aquariums.
The attacks on the Taiji town government actually began earlier, in September. The town’s website was hit again on Oct. 6, Oct. 17 and Oct. 21.
The Taiji Whale Museum site was targeted on Nov. 3, and the Japan Whaling Association reported two attacks in September and October.
Nobuhiro Tsuji, a security expert at Softbank Technology Corp. who monitors Anonymous activities, said cyber-attacks against entities related to whale and dolphin hunting got under way in 2013.
“The attacks began with opposition to the whale hunt, but organizations that have nothing to do with it have been targeted now,” he said. “Now, it is not surprising for any Japanese website to come under attack.”
Tsuji said he has noticed a change in mind-set with the latest attacks, which started in September.
For one, he said news organizations, including The Japan News on Oct. 9. The Mainichi Shimbun on Nov. 4 and The Nihon Keizai Shimbun on Nov. 10, became targets.
Previously, there was a tacit understanding that media outlets would not be attacked, he said.
Tsuji warned that the ongoing cyber-attacks could continue for some time.
The Japanese government plans to compile cybersecurity management guidelines for businesses by the year-end to bolster their precautions.
(This article was written by Tomomi Abe and Taichi Kobayashi.)
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