3RD LD: Chinese hackers sabotage websites in Japan, Taiwan

0 Comments | Asian Political News, August 9, 2004

HONG KONG, Aug. 6 Kyodo

(EDS: UPDATING WITH DENIAL BY FEDERATION)

Chinese hackers struck back over a cyber attack by Japanese activists by hacking into dozens of official websites in Japan and Taiwan, China's official newspaper Wen Wei Po's Hong Kong edition reported Friday.

The newspaper said powerful hacker groups organized 1,900 hackers to launch a massive attack on more than 200 official websites in Japan and Taiwan on Monday.

The hackers, thought to have been organized by the China Federation of Defending the Diaoyu Islands, were divided into five groups responsible for different tasks by the hacker groups themselves, the daily said.

Dozens of Japanese official websites such as at the Foreign Ministry, National Police Agency, Japan Coast Guard and Defense Agency, as well as, some official Taiwan websites, were shut down, the report said.

Most Japanese websites were revived after a few seconds up to two days, but many of the sites in Taiwan are said to still be down.

The sabotage was in retaliation for a Japan-based attack on the website of the China Federation of Defending Diaoyu Islands on July 25, the report said.

But the federation, which seeks to assert China's claim to sovereignty over a group of islands that called the Senkaku Islands in Japan, denied that it had launched the attack.

''I am not aware of the hacking. It's very strange. We wouldn't use illegal means to take revenge on illegal activities,'' Zhou Wenpo, who is in charge of the federation's network, told Kyodo News from Beijing.

Zhou confirmed that his group's federation's website was sabotaged on July 25 but said that his group has no plans in respond.

''We condemn such illegal activities. The hackers should be brought to justice,'' he said.

Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroyuki Hosoda admitted Thursday there had been an attack on the government computer network system early this week, but no major damage had resulted.

He added it would be difficult to track down the hackers.

The sovereignty dispute over the Japan-held Senkaku Islands at the eastern edge of the East China Sea and west of Okinawa has been going on for decades.

Each year, ultranationalists from each country try to land on the 20 square kilometers of islands to declare sovereignty, moves that have led to diplomatic rows over arrests, injuries and, in 1996, the death of an activist from Hong Kong.