Cyber Incident Victim: Narita International Airport
Date:
Oct 2015
Location:
Japan
Summary
Anonymous conducted distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks targeting Narita International Airport and another major Japanese airport, forcing their official websites offline for approximately eight hours as part of #OpKillingBay, a campaign protesting dolphin slaughter and live trade to aquariums. While airport authorities confirmed flight operations remained unaffected, the attacks disrupted public access to critical online services. This incident followed similar cyber protests by the hacktivist group against Japanese entities involved in dolphin hunting, including a prior takedown of a local town's website. The attacks demonstrated Anonymous' continued focus on leveraging digital disruptions to advance animal rights causes.
| CIA Posture | Motives | Tactics, Techniques & Procedures |
|---|---|---|
| Available to members | 2 motives | 1 technique |
| Threat Actor | Type | Location |
|---|---|---|
| 1 actor | Available to members | Available to members |
Description
On October 9, 2015, the hacktivist group Anonymous publicly announced via Twitter its intent to target two major Japanese airports—Narita International Airport and Chubu International Airport—as part of #OpKillingBay, a campaign protesting Japan's dolphin slaughter and trade to aquariums. The following day, October 10, Anonymous executed distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks against Narita Airport's official website, overwhelming its servers with traffic from multiple networks and forcing the site offline for over eight hours. Chubu Airport's website suffered an identical attack the same day, also remaining inaccessible for approximately eight hours. Airport authorities confirmed flight operations were unaffected despite the website outages. The attacks coincided with ongoing demonstrations against the annual dolphin drive hunts in Taiji, Wakayama Prefecture, where Anonymous had previously targeted the town's website in September 2015.
The DDoS attacks paralyzed public access to critical airport information systems but caused no reported disruptions to air traffic control or physical airport functions. Both airports restored their websites after mitigating the attacks, with services fully operational by October 18, 2015. Anonymous framed the incident as retaliation against Japan's dolphin hunting practices, aligning with their broader activism against animal abuse, including prior operations against animal cruelty forums. The incident drew international attention to the Taiji dolphin hunts through media coverage of the cyberattacks, though no direct evidence linked the website disruptions to changes in Japanese fisheries policy. This marked Anonymous's second cyber protest against Japanese entities related to dolphin welfare within a month, demonstrating their sustained focus on leveraging digital disruption for animal rights advocacy.