By Anthony Faiola
Washington Post Foreign Service
Tuesday, May 10, 2005; A12
TOKYO -- In the fortified control room of a major Internet security firm, a beleaguered team of experts slouched in front of glowing computer screens, tracking overseas hackers through billions of lines of data. They glanced up periodically at an electronic world map on the wall where, every few seconds, red lines lit up, revealing a new cyber-war aimed at Tokyo. Over the past several months, a series of attacks believed to have originated in China and South Korea have hit dozens of key public and private Web sites hosted in Japan. Authorities describe it as the heaviest assault ever perpetrated on the nation's computer systems from overseas. Although the violent street protests in Beijing and Shanghai in recent weeks are the most visible face of resurgent anti-Japanese sentiments in the region, quieter Internet-based hostilities remain a source of national concern. The angry demonstrations appear sharpened by a sense of strategic rivalry, as China's economic power grows and Japan looks to redefine its regional military role. In the newly adversarial atmosphere, China has opposed Japan's bid to become a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council, saying it is unfit for such leadership until it faces up to its past. In addition, old animosities were rekindled in China after Japan's Education Ministry approved new textbooks that critics say whitewash the history of Japanese aggression in the region. In the most recent incident, a coordinated attack was staged May 1 on the Web site of the Japanese Embassy in Beijing. Industry sources and analysts said the attacks have caused financial losses and disrupted work at government agencies, businesses and religious centers. The sources were unable to quantify the losses, but the Web sites of the National Police Agency, the Self-Defense Forces and the Defense and Foreign ministries have been taken down repeatedly. Japanese universities and companies such as Sony Corp.'s subsidiary in China have also fallen prey to hackers posting anti-Japanese slogans in Chinese. Last week, the government expanded its information security office in part to cope with the surge in attacks. The unit is now called the National Information Security Center and employs 25 people. Analysts compare the current situation to the "Sino-U.S. cyber-war" of 2001. In April of that year, a Chinese fighter jet collided with a U.S. spy plane conducting surveillance off the coast of China and crashed into the South China Sea. During the ensuing diplomatic confrontation, hackers in China claimed to have launched attacks on as many as 1,000 U.S.-based Web sites. The Web site for Tokyo's Yasukuni Shrine has been hit by millions of "information bombs" that clogged its servers. Late last month, about 80 Japanese lawmakers made an official visit to the shrine, which deifies the nation's fallen warriors, including criminals from World War II. The shrine has struggled to allow access to its site, and Yasukuni's religious leaders recently posted a notice online describing the attacks as "a vicious challenge against the nation of Japan." Other Japanese companies and institutions have also had to contend with cyber-warfare, including viruses and timed attacks intended to shut down computer systems. Itsuro Nishimoto, executive director of SecureNet, a division of the prominent Internet security firm LAC, said the Chinese and Korean hackers "used to just have fun with us, but now they have become more vicious and have a clear intent to do damage." His company, he said, has had to dispatch more "emergency response teams" to its clients, including the Japanese government, to cope with the barrage. "They are not toying around," he said. "These attacks have given us a taste of what role computer systems might play in a real war, in Japan or anywhere." Japanese officials say the number and severity of the attacks in recent months have climbed to record levels as anti-Japanese sentiment has soared not only in China but also in South Korea, where almost half the population gains access to the Internet via broadband cable networks. In March, tensions between Japan and South Korea grew after Japan restated an old territorial claim to a group of small islands occupied by South Korea. The claim stoked bad feelings connected with Japan's occupation of the Korean Peninsula from 1910 to 1945. Japanese authorities, who spoke anonymously because of the sensitivity of the issue, said they had little doubt that the recent series of attacks had come from China and South Korea. Internet security companies such as LAC have traced the attacks to locations in both countries. But the authorities said the relative ease with which hackers can disguise attacks -- by routing the attacks through third nations, for example -- had made it difficult to lodge official protests. There is no indication that the Chinese or South Korean governments sanctioned the attacks, which appeared to originate with computer-savvy youths and seasoned hackers in those countries, Japanese officials said. In addition, the Chinese government, as part of a broader attempt to quell anti-Japanese protests across China, has quietly moved to block public access to Web sites advocating cyber-attacks on Japan. "We could provide them with the evidence, and they could easily throw it back at us and say, 'You have no proof someone in another country didn't route their attack through us,' " said one Japanese official dealing with the attacks. "The fact is, when you're dealing with crimes committed outside your borders, and by nations which aren't exactly eager to cooperate, it makes it difficult to bring cyber-criminals to justice." Officials say most of the hacking incidents have taken the form of relatively simple attacks that overwhelm a given site with messages and other communications and slow its operation to a crawl. The majority of these attacks are believed to stem from China. Wan Tao, 34, who is one of China's best-known hackers and maintains a popular Web site, said in a telephone interview that the cyber-war was at least partly precipitated by Japanese hacker attacks on Chinese Web sites. But he conceded that postings have gone up inside personal blogs and other Web sites in China advocating attacks against Japanese Web sites at specific dates and times. Nishimoto, the security company executive, said the more sophisticated forms of cyber-warfare -- including computer viruses -- had been coming from South Korea. But South Korean officials deny any homegrown campaign against Japan, saying they have maintained strict policing and enforcement of Internet laws prohibiting hacking. Chinese authorities have cracked down on anti-Japanese street protests in part because the protests were being organized through the Internet and cell phone messages that had become increasingly difficult for the government to control. They also have reportedly begun cracking down on cyber-attacks and have shut down some Web sites where anti-Japanese campaigns were posted. Experts here say the attacks show that the anti-Japanese protests have touched a nerve among young, tech-savvy and nationalist Chinese and Koreans -- while failing to ignite serious passions among Japanese youth. "The right-wingers and nationalists in Japan all tend to be middle-aged guys," Nishimoto said. "They are not very skilled on cyber-attacks. I think they'd have to hire someone to show them how to do it." Researcher Jin Ling in Beijing contributed to this report.