Japanese Government Sites Attacked in Senkaku Islands Dispute

China is protesting against Japan’s decision to nationalize the Senkaku Islands. So far, the protests have mostly taken place in the real world, but recently they have been extended into cyberspace.

A number of 19 Japanese websites, including ones of utility companies, banks and government agencies, have become the targets of distributed denial-of-service (DDOS) attacks, Kyodo News reports.

According to authorities, at least 11 of the 19 sites appointed by hacktivists as being potential targets have already suffered temporary outages.

DDOS attacks were not the only method used by hackers against Japanese websites. The one of the Supreme Court and the one of the Tokyo Institute of Technology have been defaced to display a Chinese flag.

National Police Agency officials claim that all the attacks appear to be originating from China.