Initial Disclosure Date: Jun 26, 2012

Abstract:

Anonymous posted a message dated June 23rd, 2012, to pastebin (http://pastebin.com/a4FYRtkr) to announce that they “will carry out large attack on the Japanese government.” The actor suggested that this operation is “recent” and it is “just like #opIndia.”

Discription：

The trigger of this operation seems to be a new amendment to Japan’s copyright laws passed by the Lower House on June 20. This revision imposes criminal punishment on illegal downloads. The pastebin message quotes a Reuter article dated June 22nd (http://www.rt.com/news/law-illegal-download-japan-488/) to explain about the background. “For those caught with pirated material such as music or pirated DVDs and Blu-Ray discs, fines could run as high as $25,000 and carry a sentence of two years in prison, according to CNET Japan.” Then, the actor refers to the current U.S. situation and announces #OpJapan. “Many people in the United States of America have been prosecuted and put in jail for years, including one Mother who downloaded 25 songs for her MP3 player. Her kids were taken off her and she was fined $250,000. We are not about to see Japan turn into what America has become!”

Anonymous posted a “press release” dated June 25th to AnonPR (http://anonpr.net/opjapan-expect-us-512/#more-512) and pastebin (http://pastebin.com/T3zEieUC). The announcement, “#opJapan --- Expect US,” also criticizes the amendment to the copyright laws and targets the Japanese government and the Recording Industry Association of Japan.

The posting argues, “We at Anonymous believe strongly that this will result in scores of unnecessary prison sentences to numerous innocent citizens while doing little to solve the underlying problem of legitimate copyright infringement.” They think that the new laws would allow the government to spy on “every single internet user in Japan,” and criticizes that “[t]his would be an unprecedented approach and severely reduce the amount of privacy law abiding citizens should have in a free society.”

Between 2 and 3 am on June 26 (Japanese time), Anonymous Tweeted (http://friendfeed.com/opjapan/26b0227a/opjapan-just-getting-started-expect-more) under the name of #OpJapan, “#opjapan just getting started. expect more. #DEFACE. http://t.co/LUrodmlw #anonymous #anonfamily #japan #infosec #hacktivism #bittorrent - http://twitter.com/Bartman...”

Further information on the operation is as follows, according to the posting dated June 25th:

Twitter: @op_japan
Email: opjapan@tormail.com
IRC: irc.anonops.com #opjapan

The MobilesPedia (http://www.mobilespedia.com/2012/05/anonymous-opindia-announces-street-protest-on-9th-june/) suggested on May 28 that #opIndia started in late May. As of that date, Anonymous took down about “35 websites of the Government and other unlawful private organizations through DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attacks.” They asked citizens to join a street protest on June 9.

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