Chinese hackers for nine months had undetected access to the networks of Japan’s National Center of Incident Readiness and Strategy for Cybersecurity (NISC), Financial Times reported, citing government and private sector sources.
According to people familiar with the situation, the intrusion started in the autumn of 2022 and lasted until June of this year.
In early August, Japan’s cybersecurity center admitted it suffered a security breach, which saw some personal data linked to email exchanges between October last year and June stolen. The leak came to light on June 13, when the agency detected unauthorized access to its systems.
NISC said at the time that the attackers likely exploited a zero-day vulnerability to gain access to the systems, but didn’t share any technical details regarding said flaw. Following the hack, the agency replaced the affected equipment and reported the breach to the relevant authorities.
An investigation conducted by NISC determined that only information on its email system was compromised, according to FT. It is suspected that a China-linked threat actor was behind the intrusion.
For its part, China’s foreign affairs ministry dismissed claims that the country was behind the attack.
Earlier this month, reports emerged that Chinese nation-state hackers had breached Japan's classified defense network in 2020. The intruders had deep, persistent access and appeared to be after anything they could get their hands on — plans, capabilities, and assessments of military shortcomings.
