"Mitsubishi Suffers Cyber Attack... Concerns Over Defense Information Leak"

[Asia Economy Reporter Jeong Hyunjin] Mitsubishi Electric in Japan has reportedly suffered a large-scale cyberattack from external sources, raising concerns that information related to Japan's defense facilities and critical social infrastructure such as power and railways may have been leaked, Asahi Shimbun reported on the 20th.

Asahi cited sources and internal investigations, reporting that traces of unauthorized access were found after an internal investigation was conducted on 120 PCs and 40 servers located at Mitsubishi Electric's headquarters and major bases. Suspicious files were discovered on servers operated by Mitsubishi Electric in Japan in June last year, which triggered the internal investigation.

Asahi also reported that unauthorized intrusion traces were found not only in Mitsubishi Electric but also in more than 10 Japanese government agencies including the Ministry of Defense, Ministry of the Environment, Cabinet Office, Nuclear Regulation Authority, and Agency for Natural Resources and Energy, as well as in at least dozens of domestic and foreign private companies in sectors such as power, telecommunications, railways (JR and private railway companies), and automobile industries. It added that some of this information may have been leaked.

Asahi stated, "This includes materials related to joint development with business partners, consultations, product orders, internal executive meeting documents, and materials shared with research institutes," and noted that information on defense-related technologies such as satellites and social infrastructure may also have been leaked.

Asahi estimated that the unauthorized access started from an affiliated company in China and spread to bases within Japan, suggesting that the Chinese hacking group 'Tick' was likely involved in this incident.

Since the company responsible for core cyberattack countermeasures in Japan ahead of the Tokyo Olympics was subjected to a large-scale attack, if the information leakage is confirmed, the impact is expected to be significant.