Over 3,000 Confidential Documents Stolen by Hackers from Japan’s Agriculture Ministry

Foreign hackers might have stolen over 3,000 confidential documents – including ones on the Trans-Pacific Partnership multilateral trade pact – from Japan’s Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Ministry after infecting the ministry’s systems with a piece of malware.

According to the Daily Yomiuri, the ministry’s internal investigation has revealed that the malicious tool used in this case is HTran, a connection bouncer believed to be developed by Chinese hackers of the Honker Union of China group.

Initially, the ministry didn’t contact the police, despite the fact that the intrusion fell under the Unauthorized Access Prohibition Law. However, now, the police have launched their own investigation to determine what information has been compromised.

The Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Ministry isn’t the only target of a cyberattack involving HTran.

Back in July, Japanese authorities learned that it might have been used to steal documents from the Finance Ministry sometime between October 2010 and November 2011.