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.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
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?