TOKYO: Japan’s National Police Agency and National Center of Incident Readiness and Strategy for Cybersecurity, or NISC, have confirmed that some cyberattacks launched to steal information were conducted by BlackTech, a group linked to China.

Together with US authorities, the NPA and the NISC on Wednesday released a statement warning against the group’s activities.

According to the NPA, BlackTech began mounting cyberattacks on organizations, including media and telecommunications companies, in Japan, Taiwan and the United States around 2010 with the objective of stealing information.

Japan has confirmed cases in which companies and organizations in the country were affected by such attacks. The NPA’s National Cyber Unit and Tokyo’s Metropolitan Police Department are investigating.

Through information sharing with US authorities, the NPA has found that BlackTech is related to China, according to the agency.

BlackTech typically targets foreign subsidiaries of Japanese and other organizations to exploit the vulnerabilities of routers that are connected to the networks of their head offices.

As the group modifies software of the routers to evade detection, the cyberattack damage may go undetected.

The NPA recommends that companies and other organizations conduct vulnerability management on their software and equipment as soon as possible.

JIJI Press