Chinese Military Breaks Into Japan's Top-Secret Network

2023-08-07

I didn’t read it properly, but just a note.

Chinese Military Breaks Into Japan’s Top-Secret Network

Kazuto_Takeuchi WP article on the US informing Japan that China had infiltrated the Japanese Defense Ministry’s network. The article was published in WP and has become a topic of discussion. The article is a summary in Japanese, but the original article also gives a more detailed history, suggesting that the Japanese government was behind the curve in its counter-information efforts.1// Chinese military intrudes into Japan’s top-secret network, hindering information sharing - US report: Jiji.com https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2023/08/07/china-japan-hack-pentagon/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/08/08/chinas-hacking-japans-defense-networks-was-bad-shockingly-bad/

• Chinese military hackers penetrated Japan’s most sensitive computer networks, the National Security Agency discovered in the fall of 2020, just as the United States was reckoning with the landmark SolarWinds hack — and then China’s intrusion continued through the transition to a new president.

  • (DeePL) Chinese military hackers had penetrated Japan’s most sensitive computer networks, the National Security Agency (NSA) revealed in the fall of 2020.

Kazuto_Takeuchi I was curious about the fact that it states that Chinese incursions were still continuing in 2021, despite the first warning by the US in the fall of 2020. In the fall of 2020, the second Abe Cabinet had just transitioned to the Kan Cabinet, and the Minister of Defense was Nobuo Kishi, a member of the House of Representatives. The transition was made to the Kishida Cabinet in October of the same year.2/

Kazuto_Takeuchi If this article is correct, in the year between the first warning and the second confirmation of the Chinese intrusion in 2021 If this article is correct, I am curious as to why the Ministry of Defense did not take any measures to prevent the recurrence of the intrusion in the year between the first warning and the second confirmation of the Chinese intrusion in 2021. Without proper protection of legally specified secrets, it will be very difficult to exchange information with our allies.3// The

Kazuto_Takeuchi On a different note, some of you may be surprised to read the article and see that the US is conducting intelligence activities in Japan. However, such U.S. activities have been known for some time. Even if they are a trusted friend, the reality of the international community is that their trust is “verified” through other channels.4/

Kazuto_Takeuchi As exposed by the Snowden affair in 2013, the NSA, the US intelligence agency, divides its allies into the Five Eyes ( The NSA, the U.S. intelligence agency, divides its allies into the Five Eyes (the United States, Canada, Britain, Australia, New Zealand) and others. The latter is the subject of intelligence activities, and includes Germany, France, Japan, and South Korea. Only Israel seems to have a separate special relationship, but details are unknown.5/

Kazuto_Takeuchi If you are interested in US intelligence activities in this matter, you should read Greenwald’s “Exposed. I think you should read Greenwald’s “Revealed”. Snowden worked in intelligence analysis in the U.S., exposed U.S. secrets, escaped U.S. pursuit, moved to Russia, became a Russian citizen in ‘22, 6/6

Kazuto_Takeuchi Incidentally, I recommend “A Global History of Intelligence” as an easy-to-understand overview of the history of intelligence cooperation in the West, with a focus on the United States and the United Kingdom. It is easy to understand and highly recommended. It provides detailed information on intelligence activities after World War II, especially SIGINT, and also on interception activities based in Japan.

Kazuto_Takeuchi In the prewar United States, there was a disregard for counter-information that allowed the penetration of numerous Soviet agents. This situation could repeat itself in the modern era and needs to be seriously addressed. It is important to allocate resources to the protection of information and to have a mechanism to screen people to see if they are capable of handling secrets.

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