HackersJapan develops anti-hacker weapon

The Japanese Ministry of Defense recently revealed that it is developing a new weapon to combat hackers – a “seek and destroy” virus designed to track and disable the source of cyber-attacks.

The project began in 2008, when the government awarded Fujitsu a competitive $2.3 million contract. The new cyberweapon has already been tested in a closed network environment is said to be capable of tracking down the source of a cyberattack, even the “spring board” computers hackers use to facilitate an attack.

The weapon is reported to be particularly effective against distributed denial-of-service attacks, a tactic commonly used by hackers where a site is overloaded with traffic and forced to shut down.

Before the new anti-hacker cyber tool can be deployed, though, Japan’s Ministry of Defense must overcome several legal obstacles.

Under current Japanese law it is illegal to conduct “offensive” retaliation to cyberattacks. In addition Japan’s Criminal Code bans the production of viruses.

Pushing back against these laws, Japanese defense officials have called on the laws to be changed so that the country can create effective cyberdefenses.

“Japan will be the only nation with no effective cyber-attack countermeasures unless the legal issue is settled as soon as possible,” said one senior defense official.

Minoru Tereda, a former parliamentary defense secretary, added it is “regrettable” that “even if cyberweapon development continues, there will be no way to fully take advantage of it.”