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The Chinese army allegedly instructed a hacker group to carry out cyber attacks on nearly 200 Japanese research institutions and companies, the public broadcaster NHK reported, citing unidentified people in a police investigation.
The researchers found that a member of the Chinese Communist Party was contracting under a false name for rental servers in Japan that were used in the attacks on the Japanese space agency JAXA in 2016, the broadcaster said Tuesday.
Investigators believe the cyber attacks were carried out by a group known as Tick under the direction of the People’s Liberation Army. Two men involved in contracts for the servers have left Japan, NHK said.
A Chinese systems engineer in his 30s, who is a member of the Chinese Communist Party, was referred to prosecutors for his alleged involvement in the attacks, Kyodo News reported, citing unnamed investigative sources.
The reported allegations, the latest in a string of similar incidents, come amid increasingly difficult relations between Japan and its largest trading partner. The topic of ties to China dominated the agenda at Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga’s summit with US President Joe Biden in Washington last week.
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Japanese cabinet secretary Katsunobu Kato declined to comment on the investigation. He told a regular newsletter on Tuesday that cyber attacks on infrastructure were becoming more organized and that the government considered responding to such incidents to be a major problem.
In response to a question about the NHK report on the alleged suspect during a regular Beijing newsletter, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said he was unaware of the case. Wang later added that cyberspace is made up of many actors whose origins are difficult to trace and who are warned not to create allegations in cybersecurity cases.
“When identifying an incident, there must be sufficient evidence. It cannot be based on conjecture, ”he said. “We are against other countries sleeping us in cybersecurity or using this issue to serve the despicable political agenda.”
Cyber-attacks are a common threat to all countries and China was also a victim, he added.
A JAXA spokesperson confirmed that it was the subject of an unauthorized access that appeared to be a cyber attack, but was undamaged, according to NHK. Japan has been trying to strengthen its cyber defenses in recent months.
– With the help of Go Onomitsu and Colum Murphy
Updates with comments from the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs from the seventh paragraph