Japan Airlines aircraft parked at Haneda Airport on Thursday.
15:18 JST, December 27, 2024
A pair of cyberattacks on Thursday targeted critical infrastructure in Japan.
Japan Airlines Co. and MUFG Bank Ltd. both suffered system failures due to suspected distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks, where communication functions are paralyzed by being flooded with a massive amount of data. Other attacks targeting domestic infrastructure facilities have been reported nationwide in recent years.
DDoS attacks
According to investigators, after the failure occurred, JAL consulted the Metropolitan Police Department about a DDoS attack. This type of attack is often conducted by hacktivists, groups of hackers who seek to draw attention to their political views.
After the JAL incident, trouble also hit MUFG Bank. From around 3 p.m. on Thursday, logging-in to its internet banking service became unstable.
International investigation
In recent years, a succession of cyberattacks targeting critical infrastructure has occurred nationwide.
In October 2021, 40 computers were infected with…
