Friday, May 20, 2016

Tokai-Based Nuclear Material Control Center in Japan Used as "Relay Point in Cyber-Attack"


Since details are missing, its hard to really understand exactly what happened here. Regardless, this story should raise concern about nuclear cyber-security:
Nuclear center waits over a year to report cyber-attack.THE ASAHI SHIMBUN. May 19, 2016, http://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/AJ201605190028.html

Computer hackers infiltrated a server installed at a facility that oversees handling of plutonium and other nuclear materials, but the breach was not reported for over a year because officials thought it wasn’t serious.

The government-affiliated Nuclear Material Control Center acknowledged on May 18 that the server at one of its facilities in Tokai, Ibaraki Prefecture, was used as a relay point in a cyber-attack in February last year....

On Feb. 19, 2015, an outside information security firm notified the center, “Your server is being used as a relay point in a cyber-attack that is sending high volumes of data to an outside target.”

The center changed the settings on its server the following day to prevent further infiltration attempts. The security company did not reveal the target of the cyber-attack.
According to an online document outlining responsibilities, Japan's Nuclear Material Control Center (NMCC) is the “Designated Organization” for information treatment, inspection activities and sample analyses (http://www.jnmcc.or.jp/pdf/nmcc-punf-en.pdf p. 3)

Other roles include R&D on Safeguards, physical protection, public relations and international cooperation.

Page 7 notes that “the scope of R&D projects relevant to nuclear material control includes facility or process specific aspects of material accountancy, containment/surveillance (C/S) and physical protection.

The NMCC’s headquarters are located in Tokyo with additional offices in Tokai and Rokkasho.

So, essentially, the organization tasked with PHYSICAL PROTECTION of Japan's nuclear program was HACKED and utilized as a RELAY STATION for a Cyber-Attack elsewhere.

I wonder whether any information was taken during the hacking since the NMCC probably has information on Japan's PLUTONIUM and ENRICHED URANIUM stockpiles.

I suspect that there is a lot more to this story that is not being reported.


5 comments:

  1. Japan can be a crazy place. People forget about the political unrest in the seventies in japan. Underneath those smiles, politeness, and conformity there has always been a pressure cooker that can explode. There was also the strange Aum Shinryko tuff with the seran in the subway. Japan has a history of domestic terrorism that the media and nuclear people want us to conveniently forget.
    http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2015/03/14/national/history/cult-attraction-aum-shinrikyos-power-persuasion/#.Vz865yMo4wh

    People are brainwashed to ignore the risks of nuclear power. Another reason to shut them all down!
    http://www.cnn.com/2016/04/01/opinions/nuclear-terrorism-threat-cirincione/

    http://www.enviroreporter.com/2013/10/san-onofres-risky-business/

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  2. Majia in spite of what some of the nay sayers at enenews says about high levels of ionizining radiation not causing optically visible color changes and patterns in the air from alpha beta gamma or cosmic rays, they can. A prime example is the aurora beaurealis. Ionizing radiation from the sun causes ozone from oxygen and charged nitrogen particle of nitrogen in the atmosphere causing the northern lights. High levels of ionizing radiation in the sieverts range from radioactive material like radium polonium etc can cause patterns and color changes too in a more localized less macroscopic environment as well.https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ionized-air_glowExcitation energy can be deposited in air by a number of different mechanisms:

    Ionizing radiation is the cause of blue glow surrounding sufficient quantities of strongly radioactive materials in air, e.g. some radioisotope specimens (e.g. radium or polonium)
    Within minutes after the steam explosion that caused the Chernobyl accident at 01:23 local time, a number of employees at the power station went outside to get a clearer view of the extent of the damage, one such survivor, Alexander Yuvchenko recounts that once he stopped outside and looked up towards the reactor hall he saw a "very beautiful" LASER-like beam of light bluish light, caused by the ionization of air, that appeared to flood up into infinity.[10][11][12]

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  3. This is a very cool article bout the effects of radioactive cesium in the body based on microspic examination of tissue exposed to radioactive cesium.Radioactive Cesium and Heart Chapter 4: Pathophysiological Characteristics of Effects of Radioactive Cesium on Heart


    By Yury Bandazhevsky
    Revised English translation by Yuri Hiranuma
    Original full version “Radioactive Caesium and Heart”
    https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B3fFCVXEJlbvQkluX2tocjVZd2c/edit

    Thus, it is possible to make a conclusion about harmful influences of this radionuclide on the cardiovascular system after analyzing the following data: results of ECG examination of the children of various ages with varying degrees of incorporation of radioactive cesium in the body; microscopic studies of organs of individuals in the territories affected by the Chernobyl accident; and lastly laboratory experiments with animals. This effect is manifested not only due to its direct impact on cellular structures but also its indirect influences through a series of systems, in particular the nervous and endocrine systems.
    http://fukushimavoice-eng.blogspot.com/2013/02/radioactive-cesium-and-heart-chapter-4.html?m=1

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    Replies
    1. Great link. Thanks! Yury Bandazhevsky's work is very illuminating.

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