Fujitsu® System Falls Prey to Cyber Crime

Fujitsu Computer System that was managed by around 200 local Japanese Governments become victim of a series of cyber attacks.

Fujitsu, the Japanese enterprise dealing in hardware, software and services, disclosed recently that one of its computer systems that was used by local governments in Japan fell prey to a series of denial of service (DoS) attacks.

The online system that was created in order to help local residents file their request for official documents and certificates over the Internet, broke down twice this week, a Fujitsu spokesman said.

While detecting the cause of breakdown, the company discovered that the system ceased to work in the wake of a deluge of accesses released from malicious addresses. After being started early Thursday, the system froze up twice as a result of incessant attacks from pernicious addresses, the spokesman added.

“They were DoS (Denial of Service) attacks,” the spokesman said. “We shut down accesses from the identified IP addresses, but more cyberattacks are possible from other addresses.” Around ten prefectures, including the south-western Fukuoka, used the system, the spokesman mentioned.

Around 200 local governments belonging to prefectures, cities, towns and villages are linked to the system so that online public services could be provided to them.

A DoS (Denial of Service) attack is an evil attempt to render a computer resource unavailable to its prospective users. The means, purpose, and the target of a DoS attack may differ. However, it is normally the handiwork of an individual or a concerted effort by a group of people. The objective of such an attack is to prevent the site from working properly. The nature of the damage done could be either temporary or permanent.