Chinese Cyberattack on Japan Called 'Shockingly Bad'

In an incident that reportedly happened in 2020 but is only just now being revealed, a dozen anonymous sources tell the Washington Post that China hacked into Japan's classified defense networks. A former US military official who was briefed on the cyberattack tells the Post, "It was bad—shockingly bad." The newspaper describes China as having "deep, persistent access" to things like "plans, capabilities, assessments of military shortcomings." That access continued until the Biden administration took over in 2021, and Japan has since said it will increase its cybersecurity budget massively, quadruple the size of its military's cybersecurity force, and boost its network security.

The National Security Agency discovered the hack—one of the worst such attacks in Japan's history—in the fall of 2020, sources say. Later, under President Biden, the US Cyber Command offered Japan help, but Japan was "uncomfortable having another country's military on their networks," a former US military official says. Instead, domestic firms were used to probe gaps in Japan's cybersecurity, with Cyber Command reviewing what they found and offering advice. By fall of 2021, however, the US determined Japan had not made much progress in sealing the breach. Japan has not confirmed the story, Bloomberg reports. See the full story and analysis at the Washington Post. (More China stories.)