A pro-Russian cyber group has infiltrated the Japanese Liberal Democratic Party’s website amidst the East Asian country’s House of Representatives general election campaign.
The breach involved a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack, which is a tactic often observed from Russia-related hackers against allies since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Kazuhiko Aoki confirmed that the government’s dedicated cyber agencies are now conducting investigations and have already applied “active” security measures to protect the campaign period.
“The government is aware of the trends regarding cyber attacks by hacker groups,” Aoki stated.
“The National Center of Incident Readiness and Strategy for Cybersecurity is working with relevant ministries and agencies to quickly and accurately grasp the situation and gather information to prevent the damage from spreading.”
“Fair elections are the foundation of democracy. Any actions that undermine fair elections will never be tolerated by any organization, group or individual.”
An ‘Adequate Countermeasure’
Among the actors that claimed the recent attack was NoName057(16), which began its operations in March 2022.
The group said in a Telegram update that the attack on Japan was an effort to cripple Tokyo’s capabilities in response to its upcoming military exercise with the US, some of which will take place near Russia’s border.
Tokyo-based news agency NHK reported earlier this month that the Russian Foreign Ministry criticized the event “for expanding” annually.
“Such actions would entail ‘adequate countermeasures’ aimed at protecting Russia’s sovereignty and strengthening its defense capabilities,” NoName057(16) said on the messaging service platform.
“Particular discontent was caused by the participation of non-regional NATO member states in the maneuvers, which, in Russia’s opinion, increases the threat and is unacceptable.”
“We punish Russophobic Japan and remind that any measures directed against Russia may end badly.”