Japan Suspects China’s Involvement In Cyberattacks That Hit 200 Organisations

The Japanese government suspects that hackers linked to China’s military launched cyberattacks against 200 Japanese companies and research organisations, including the country’s space agency. According to the Associated Press (AP), authorities believe that “Tick”, a Chinese hacking group working at the behest of a unit of the People’s Liberation Army, attempted to breach the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) in 2016 and 2017.

Police think that a Chinese systems engineer based in Japan gained access to a rental server by assuming a false identity to launch the cyberattacks, revealed Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Katsunobu Kato. Meanwhile, the AP – citing a NHK report – said a Chinese national who was in Japan as an exchange student was also investigated for suspected links to the PLA unit. Both men are reportedly no longer in the country.

“The involvement of China’s People’s Liberation Army is highly likely,” said Kato, adding that no data theft or damage have been uncovered so far.

Unsurprisingly, China pushed back strongly against allegations that it was the responsible party. “Groundless speculation should not be allowed. China is firmly opposed to any country or institution using cyberattacks to throw mud at China or to serve the despicable political purposes with cybersecurity issues,” said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin.

Last month, Tokyo began investigating popular private messaging app Line for allegedly allowing Chinese engineers to assess Japanese users’ data. Later, the government temporarily halted its use of the app for the handling of sensitive information, Reuters said.

Seller Claims Fresh Database Sold Online Contains Details of 200,000 Malaysians

We have received a tip that another set of personal data that belongs to Malaysians have been listed online. It was listed on the same marketplace that featured the alleged E-Pay Malaysia database earlier this week.

According to the listing, the seller claimed that the database contained 200,000 entries and includes information such as name, address, phone numbers, and IC number. The seller also stated that the database belonged to the local e-commerce platform, Ifmal.

However, Ifmal has since refuted that claim through a statement on its official Facebook page. According to the post, the e-commerce company apparently don’t that many customers in its database and Ifmal also never asked for buyer’s IC number.

We have checked Ifmal’s claim ourselves and it is indeed true that the platform did not ask for user’s IC number. In general, the information that the platform asked from its customers are quite different, as shown in the screenshot below:

So, now comes the important questions: who is the actual owner of the said leaked database? Is it even real? Regardless of the answer though, we believe relevant authorities may want to look into this so-called fresh data leak anyway as it is better to be safe than sorry.