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Japan Beefs Up Cyber Defense in Wake of Chinese Attacks NewsMax.com WiresTOKYO -- In the face of a recent upsurge in cyber attacks believed linked to anti-Japanese sentiment in Asia, Japan's government has bolstered its defense of the country's computer systems, boosting staff and creating a new agency to coordinate efforts. The National Information Security Center was established on April 25 and anti-cyber attack staff was increased from 18 to 26 to handle an explosion in Internet assaults at several government agencies and other Web sites. Story Continues Below "This reform is in part the government's response to the recent surge in cyber attacks," Yoshitaka Nishiura, a center official, said Wednesday. "But more than that, we decided we needed a department that oversees information security for the government as a whole." The new center is an expansion of the Information Technology Security Office. Cyber attacks have hit Japan's National Police Agency, the Self-Defense Forces and the Defense and Foreign ministries, in addition to other sites, such as businesses and a Tokyo war shrine criticized in Asia for honoring convicted war criminals, officials say. Sony Corp. was also affected. The company had to shut down its Chinese-language Web site for several days after hackers vandalized it in April. The assaults are believed to be the silent underside of the violent anti-Japan protests that broke out last month across China. The demonstrations were triggered by Tokyo's approval of a history book that detractors say whitewashes atrocities committed by Japan during its conquest of East Asia in the 1930s and 40s. Government officials are reluctant to publicly pin the attacks on Chinese and South Korea hackers because of the difficulty of identifying their source, but an upsurge in attacks coincided with the protests. "I can't comment on media reports that many of these attacks came from China and South Korea," said Naoki Miyagi, another center official. "But it's true that there were provocative messages on Chinese Web sites calling for cyber attacks on Japanese establishments." None of the government sites have been crippled by the attacks, but Miyagi said the assaults can clog and slow down computer connections. There have been no successful attempts to change the information posted on those sites, he said. Some of the attacks, however, have been intense. An official at Tokyo's Yasukuni Shrine, which honors war criminals among Japan's 2.5 million war dead, said on condition of anonymity that the site there had been hit with 15,000 attacks per second. Experts say the recent flood of Internet intrusions marks a shift from occasional "kid's play" hacking to organized, full-scale, politically motivated assaults. "People have discovered that they can conduct 'digital demonstrations' at anytime," said Itsuro Nishimoto, of SecureNet Service, a division of Internet security company LAC. "It's almost unthinkable that a huge flock of Chinese people could come to Japan and hold a protest," he said. "But digitally, it's possible." The Internet attacks appear to be part of a broader use of advanced technology in the anti-Japan protests. Demonstrators said word of protests in China spread through e-mail and mobile phone text messages, and details were also posted on popular Internet sites. Authorities used the same method to warn people against demonstrating in the days after the riots. Just last week, Beijing police sent this text message to millions of cell phone users in the capital: "Express patriotism rationally. Don't take part in illegal protests. Don't make trouble." Authorities also shut down activists' Web sites.
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