Initial Disclosure Date: Jun 27, 2012
Updated: Jul 3, 2012

Abstract:

As Anonymous announced to launch large cyber-attacks or #OpJapan on the Japanese government in its pastebin message (http://pastebin.com/a4FYRtkr) dated June 23rd, 2012, cyber-attacks started against some websites of the Japanese government on June 26. The website of the Japanese Society for Rights of Authors, Composers and Publishers (JASRAC) suffered access difficulties between June 27th and 28th and on the 30th as well. The Metropolitan Police Department started full-scale investigation on June 28. Anonymous issued a press release on July 2 and 3 and declared to have an off-line meeting to conduct Operation Anonymous Cleaning Service (OpACS) at the Shibuya Miyashita Park, Tokyo, on July 7. OpACS members emphasized that this operation is different from the OpJapan and aims to protest in a peaceful manner.

Discription：

Around 11:50am on June 26, the National Information Security Center under the Cabinet Office urgently contacted the Ministry of Finance. The Ministry confirmed that malicious outsiders hacked into its system to disclosure information on government-owned property. They partially defaced the website and posted a video of foreign street protest with a message to oppose to the restart of the Ohi Nuclear Power Plant. They also inserted a message, “We are Anonymous. We do not forgive.” The Ministry stopped the operation of the website and deleted malicious files on the server around 2pm on the 26th. Takanari Horino, a ministry official, explained, “We are investigating where the illegal item came from.” He also added, “We are aware of the Anonymous statement referring to the new copyright law, but we don’t know at this point if the cyber-attacks are linked to the group.”

Tweet postings in the evening on the 26th started to target the website of courts and an office to handle rivers related projects under the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism. According to the Supreme Court, Internet users could not open its website, which introduces nationwide courts and their websites, as of 8:50pm on June 26. The website, however, was restored about 50 minutes later. The Supreme Court claims that they do not know if this was caused by cyber-attacks. On the same evening, Internet users were not able to access the website of the Intellectual Property High Court for a while.

According to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, the website of its Kasumigaura office was partially defaced. It was a website for Ministry officials to check the amount of rainfall. Hackers posted an English message, “ We are Anonymous” and a photo of a street protest opposing to the restart of the Nuclear Plant. Postings on the “2ch” website, the largest bulletin board in Japan, hackers mixed up Kasumigaseki, where most of Japanese ministries and agencies are located, with Kasumigaura, about 60km north to Tokyo. Indeed, op_Japan Tweeted in Japanese at 20:51:17 on June 27, “Busy yesterday. But made a mistake a little bit. Sorry for the errant bombing (smile). Japanese is so difficult. But everyone is nice. I explained about the mistake. Thanks. We will do our best.”

Anonymous’s lack of knowledge of Japan is seen in their cyber-attacks on the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). It is possible that Anonymous had thought the LDP is still the ruling party in Japan and conducted DDoS attacks on the LDP prior to the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ). Between the evening on June 26 and the morning on the 27th, Internet users found it difficult to access the website of the LDP and DPJ. Anonymous called for cyber-attacks on them in its Twitter postings. They criticized in Twitter that Japanese government criminalized downloads and argued that is why they are now taking actions. They posted the URL of the DPJ website, saying that this is the next target. At 20:51:28 on June 27, op_Japan Tweeted again in Japanese, “However, the LDP and DPJ are not our mistake. They were punished because they supported and voted for illegal downloads.”

Probably because they were not able to take the Democratic Party of Japan’s website off line, Anonymous started to train “2ch” users how to use HOIC (High Orbit Ion Canon), which is a DDoS tool. At 23:27:45 on June 27, Anonymous posted a message to the “2ch” website: “We…are making our effort to take down the DPJ website… Can you cooperate with us to give it? Please follow the instruction as follows to download the files and put http://www.dpj.or.jp/ in the URL.”

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,” criticizes the amendment to the copyright laws and targets the Japanese government and the Recording Industry Association of Japan. The Association says that they have not suffered any cyber-attack as of 10pm on June 26.

However, the website of JASRAC suffered access difficulties on the June 27th evening and 30th afternoon, and they started investigation. “The server did not go down but we have to investigate this again thoroughly,” JASRAC stated. Although OpJapan Official Tweeted on June 30, “TANGO DOWN: jasrac.or.jp,” it is unknown if this indicates Anonymous’ involvement. In the “press release” dated June 25th, Anonymous cricitized ISP module for illegal downloads surveillance. JASRAC is playing a central role to introduce ISP. Anonymous argued that ISPs would “spy on…every single internet use in Japan. This would be an unprecedented approach and severely reduce the amount or privacy law abiding citizens should have in a free society.”

In the morning on June 27, Chief Cabinet Secretary Osamu Fujimura held a press conference and referred to Anonymous’ announcement to launch cyber-attacks and damages. He pointed out, “The relationship is still uncertain between the announcement and the current damages.” “At this stage, we have not confirmed any computer virus infection or information leakage. After the announcement by Anonymous, I ordered each ministry and agency to strengthen their security against potential cyber-attacks and take prompt counter-measures yesterday,” he explained. “Countermeasures against cyber-attacks are critical for national risk management. The Japanese government wants to improve and strengthen information security for the entire government, taking this incident into consideration.”

Some Twitter postings started to call for street protests and sit-in strikes. For example, OpJapan Official (@op_japan) Tweeted at 18:37 on June 26, “We have only one way to stop criminal punishment for illegal downloads! Japanese people should protest in the real world! Not by website attacks but protests! By fliers! Even sit-in strikes! If you do not do anything, nothing will change! We have to protect the Internet right now. Otherwise, we will lose everything!”

On July 3, Anonymous published a press release in Japanese, “The Declaration of Operation Anonymous Cleaning Service/OpA.C.S.” at http://anonymous-jp.com/120701_opACS.html. This has more detailed information such as the gathering spot (the Shibuya Miyashita Park, Tokyo) and areas to clean up (Tokyo areas including the Shibuya Station) than another press release dated July 2nd at http://anonnews.org/press/item/1622/. The new press release emphasizes the difference from the OpJapan because the operation seeks lawfulness. “It is not appropriate to protest in possibly illegal manners to obtain broad support from the public even this aims to protect the invaluable right of freedom of information and privacy. Thus, Anonymous members who join the OpACS promise you to protest in a peaceful manner, unlike OpJapan Anonymous members.”

OpJapan Official started to Tweet anti-nuclear power plants and anti-TEPCO messages at early in the morning on July 2. AnonymousIRC argued in Japanese, “Are you unhappy about the government and electronic companies that restart nuclear power plants? We support you!” Back in May 2011, Anonymous launched “Operation Green Rights,” which aimed at launching cyber-attacks on companies that pollute the globe. Their four target candidates were Bayer, BP, the Dow Chemical Company, and TEPCO, which had the Fukushima nuclear disaster. They, however, did not launch cyber-attacks on TEPCO in 2011.

On June 29, Anonymous emailed back to answer an inquiry of the Mainichi Shimbun in English. The newspaper sent a list of questions to the Anonymous website to ask about the attack period, the reason to attack Japan, the possibility to attack new targets, and the involvement of Japanese. Anonymous argued that they had not attacked all of their targets yet and would continue to attack until the current situation changes or they get sick of cyber-attacks. They admitted that it is possible that they unfortunately get tire of attacking before the completion of their operation. Anonymous explained that they targeted Japan because it is ridiculous to put those who illegally download music behind bars. Anonymous said that they might be split into groups to attack new targets, which happens a lot to the hacktivist group. Finally, they suggested that they feel the strong involvement of Japanese although they cannot say for sure.

The following parts were updated:

The 8th paragraph about the second cyber-attacks on the JASRAC website on June 30
The 11th paragraph about the difference between the OpJapan and OpACS
The last paragraph on the Mainichi Shimbun’s interview with Anonymous on June 29

Sources:

Shukan Diamond (Weekly Diamond), “Anonymous ga saiba kogeki no taisho kigyo wo ‘senkyo’ ‘Chikyu no midori no teki’ 1i Bayer, 2i Toden [Anonynous chose target companies for its cyber-attacks --- the 1st choice is Bayer and the 2nd choice is TEPCO],” June 29, 2011,
http://diamond.jp/articles/-/12921
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http://www.asahi.com/national/update/0626/TKY201206260569.html
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http://www.iza.ne.jp/news/newsarticle/event/crime/572454/
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