Crossroads Blog | Institute National Security and Counterterrorism

cyber attack, Cyber Exploitation

Virus Infects Computers in Japan’s Parliament: NYT

On October 26th, 2011, Martin Fackler reported for the New York Times on how Japan's Parliament was infected with a virus.  The virus infected the personal computers of three members of the Japanese lower house, allowing for the monitoring of e-mail accounts.  Although Japanese officials have struggled to identify the source of the virus, investigators have found digital traces of Chinese characters that are predominately used in mainland China.  Of course, this news is significant in light of the discovery that Japanese defense contractors may have lost classified military data as the result of a cyberattack.  These same defense contractors produce American weapons systems like Patriot missile batteries and the F-15 fight jet.

The source article can be found here.

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