Cyber Incident Victim: 日本気象協会
Date:
Jan 2025
Location:
Japan
Summary
A Japan-based weather organization experienced significant service disruptions due to distributed denial-of-service attacks targeting its website and mobile application, with two separate incidents causing outages exceeding seven and nine hours respectively. These attacks formed part of a broader campaign impacting at least 46 Japanese entities including financial institutions and aviation services, utilizing malware-infected IoT devices like cameras and home appliances to overwhelm networks. Security analysts identified botnet coordination through compromised IP addresses, noting parallel attack patterns in Western nations while acknowledging potential simultaneous operations by multiple threat actors.
| CIA Posture | Motives | Tactics, Techniques & Procedures |
|---|---|---|
| Available to members | 1 motive | 1 technique |
| Threat Actors | Type | Location |
|---|---|---|
| 0 actors | Available to members | Available to members |
Description
The Japan Weather Association experienced two significant cyberattacks in late December 2024 and early January 2025, both involving distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) incidents that disrupted its digital services. The first attack occurred on Sunday, December 29, 2024, affecting both the web and mobile application versions of its weather information platform. This initial incident required over seven hours to fully resolve, causing extended service interruptions for users. A second, more severe attack struck on Thursday, January 1, 2025, beginning around 7:00 AM and rendering the association's information website completely inaccessible. Service restoration took more than nine hours, marking nearly a full business day of downtime during peak winter weather monitoring season. These attacks coincided with a broader wave of cyber assaults targeting at least 46 Japanese entities since late December, including major corporations like Japan Airlines, NTT Docomo, and multiple banking institutions.
Security firm Trend Micro Inc. investigated the incidents and identified technical commonalities across the attacks. Forensic analysis revealed hackers utilized a botnet—a network of malware-infected internet-connected devices—to overwhelm victim networks with traffic. The botnet incorporated compromised consumer devices including cameras and home appliances, which were simultaneously controlled to execute coordinated assaults. Trend Micro discovered attack instructions targeting specific IP addresses of Japanese entities through this botnet infrastructure, with evidence suggesting similar malicious activity occurring against targets in the United States and Europe. While the Japan Weather Association restored services through technical countermeasures following both attacks, Trend Micro officials noted the possibility of multiple threat actor groups conducting parallel operations, indicating a complex attack landscape rather than a single-source campaign. The consecutive incidents against the weather service demonstrated persistent targeting of critical public information infrastructure during severe weather periods.