Japan’s space agency JAXA was hacked this summer
According to officials of Japan’s space agency JAXA, its computer system was hacked this summer but only learned of that break-in recently.
The illegal access is believed to have occurred around summer, but JAXA was unaware of the attack until the police contacted the agency, according to the sources. A full investigation was launched after JAXA reported the cyber-attack to the Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Ministry, which has jurisdiction over the agency.
Although no large-scale information leakage has been confirmed at this stage, an official related to JAXA said: “As long as the AD server was hacked, it was very likely that most of the information was visible. This is a very serious situation.”
Earlier hacks to JAXA’s systems have also occurred in 2016 and 2017, with the culprits identified as working under the direction of the Chinese military. It is very likely that China is involved this time as well. China has previously been identified as the perpetrator of hacks of JPL from 2009 to 2019, during which much of JPL’s files on its planetary missions was stolen. It was thus no surprise when later Chinese planetary missions looked like upgraded copycats of those missions.
Why China is attempting to steal anything from Japan’s space program is puzzling however, considering its recent failures. If anything, China’s space program is presently far more advanced than Japan’s, and it should be Japan trying to steal from China.
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According to officials of Japan’s space agency JAXA, its computer system was hacked this summer but only learned of that break-in recently.
The illegal access is believed to have occurred around summer, but JAXA was unaware of the attack until the police contacted the agency, according to the sources. A full investigation was launched after JAXA reported the cyber-attack to the Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Ministry, which has jurisdiction over the agency.
Although no large-scale information leakage has been confirmed at this stage, an official related to JAXA said: “As long as the AD server was hacked, it was very likely that most of the information was visible. This is a very serious situation.”
Earlier hacks to JAXA’s systems have also occurred in 2016 and 2017, with the culprits identified as working under the direction of the Chinese military. It is very likely that China is involved this time as well. China has previously been identified as the perpetrator of hacks of JPL from 2009 to 2019, during which much of JPL’s files on its planetary missions was stolen. It was thus no surprise when later Chinese planetary missions looked like upgraded copycats of those missions.
Why China is attempting to steal anything from Japan’s space program is puzzling however, considering its recent failures. If anything, China’s space program is presently far more advanced than Japan’s, and it should be Japan trying to steal from China.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
Maybe that is why there have been recent failures at JAXA? Just a thought, they could have been planting bad data.
Ron: Though it is possible that bad data could have been planted in this hack, it had nothing to do with Japan’s recent launch failures, all of which occurred before the hack.
You may be leaving out the other guys with an obsession about Japan.
The Kim Dynasty of North Korea.
They are lesser on the net than Beijing’s Ministry Of State Security, but they have incentive to “Produce, or Else”.
One item to take note in regards to China’s technology is their short comings in the materials science, mainly in metals. They do not want to do the R&D themselves, so they either buy, borrow, or steal it. Japan may not have a space program the size of China’s but they are ahead of them in many technologies, like materials science, in my opinion.
China’s hackers (PLA) go after anything that is online. I remember watching a video of kid putting an old main frame online and during the demonstration, two connection attempts were made coming from China.
NO!! China would never do that!
There is also bad blood between Japan and the rest of Asia over WWII.
Jay,
The idea of a mainframe on the web interests me as well. Perhaps China figures the workings of an old mainframe might allow advantages in hacking…which burns up first…a faster modern server or a simpler box that can just keep sending junk?