Japan investigates potential involvement of a pro-Russian group in cyberattacks

Japan announced that it is looking into the possible role in cyberattacks of a pro-Russian group, after numerous government websites were disrupted on 6 September. The ransomware group in question is ‘Killnet’, which is considered to be responsible for attacks on government websites, as media reports indicate.

According to Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno, the Japanese government is investigating whether problems accessing more than 20 websites across four government ministries were caused by a denial-of-service (DDoS) attack. Matsuno also explained that government websites could not be reached on the evening of 6 September. However, services were recovered on the same day. According to Matsuno, the case is still under investigation, although the pro-Russian group is suggesting that they were behind the attack.