Hackers say they crashed Abe's website to protest whale hunt

Good.

Makes a statement that the some people in the world care about this outrageous behaviour of whaling for "research" and "tradition".

Cetaceans strike back. Good for them.

Not that I care one wit for or would ever waste my time visiting an Abe website, but does anyone else feel at all uncomfortable with just how simple it is to hack and shut down a Japanese website?

Why do Japanese hate whales so much?

let's flip that question around, why do "some" westerners love whales so much? they are neither endangered nor useful in any capacity. so why care if a few hundred or a thousand of them are killed yearly?

Not that I care one wit for or would ever waste my time visiting an Abe website, but does anyone else feel at all uncomfortable with just how simple it is to hack and shut down a Japanese website?

Japanese programmers are not very good at web security.

Uh oh.... Yep, along with the firecracker in the loos at Yasukuni, you bet Abe will use this for some restrictions or other, and have the cyber police tightening their grip on the Internet , 'for your safety of course'.

And, we had Abe spouting off about how he is going to make Japan the safest country in the world. The only way they will achieve that is by making friends, not enemies, which they are not very good at. Can anybody name one country that Japan could call a true ally? Of course you can't! Japan will never be a safe country as long as the right-wing leaders continue to make a mockery of international laws.

Yup. That'll teach 'em.

It's terrible! Why doesn't somebody do something about it?

A refined democratic way to show one's dissatisfaction.

GOOD

Japanese programmers are not very good at web security.

That's a very un-strangerland comment. I'm not saying you're wrong, but it comes over as a sweeping generalization. I read every day of successful hacks on sites outside of Japan. I'd say that programmers everywhere can be poor at web security. The reasons are various, and not necessarily that they're poor programmers.

I'm not saying you're wrong, but it comes over as a sweeping generalization.

It is. It would be more correct to say few Japanese programmers are good at web security. It's a major issue I've had to deal with here on more than one occasion.

I'd say that programmers everywhere can be poor at web security.

To some degree.

Good job! And Mr Abe, lucky they didn't decide to get our "My Number" - next time may be.

ifd66 " Mr Abe, lucky they didn't decide to get our "My Number""

The night is young, my friend. It is only a matter of time before all the data on our super-secure loyal citizen monitoring system is up for sale.

Hackers say they crashed Abe's website to protest whale hunt

Crashing the web was kind of an overreaction. The Japanese are doing scientific research aren't they?

No need for the tree-huggers to get so uptight. It would be worse if :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbie3DnAkd8

urging Abe not to eat whale meat and go vegan.

so we should all become vegan b/c anonymous told us to? this is utterly ridiculous. thugs, but environmental thugs so that makes it palatable for so many.

Whaling in Japan's territorial waters might be a "cultural right", beyond that, it is anti-cooperative and selfish.

In addition to supporting eco-terrorism, many allegedly conservation and environmentally conscious people are to a great extent disrespectful of the rule of law, an indicator of immaturity and low social and financial status as they have nothing worth losing from lawlessness. The Anonymous Hackers would rather spend their time harassing Japan for hunting NON-ENDANGERED whales rather than using their skills to bring down ISIL's online activities radicalizing young muslims globally, recruiting and advocating the MURDERING OF INNOCENT PEOPLE. But then, the inability to differentiate priorities is also an indicator of immaturity.

Ah crap--and I was gonna use that site!

The term "hackers" is used so loosely these days it devalues the meaning.

For the record, anyone can run a DoS tool as a collective and bring down a website. These are not hackers, they aren't even scriptkiddies. Just google Low Orbit Ion Cannon (LOIC).

Not to mention that attacks like these only make those hosts offering "DDoS" protection richer.

Other than that, whaling will most likely not stop.

Good on them. The pressure has to be ramped up until Japan finds it financially unfeasable to continue this barbaric act.

He cannot protect his own website. How can we believe he can protect the "my number" system from being hacked as well?

He cannot protect his own website. How can we believe he can protect the "my number" system from being hacked as well?

His website was not hacked. Hacking means that someone gained unauthorized access. His site was the target of a DDoS attack, where the site is made to be unaccessible to anyone trying to access it, by having thousands and thousands of requests made to the site at such a speed that the server cannot handle them all. No unauthorized access is gained in a DDoS attack, and it's not actually a hack, it's just an attack.

In real world terms, it would be like going to a bank where there are 4000 people in line ahead of you. None of them is in the vault, so your money is safe, but if you really want to do anything at the bank, you're going to have to wait until things clear out a bit.

OssanAmerica - In addition to supporting eco-terrorism, many allegedly conservation and environmentally conscious people are to a great extent disrespectful of the rule of law, an indicator of immaturity and low social and financial status as they have nothing worth losing from lawlessness. The Anonymous Hackers would rather spend their time harassing Japan for hunting NON-ENDANGERED whales rather than using their skills to bring down ISIL's online activities radicalizing young muslims globally, recruiting and advocating the MURDERING OF INNOCENT PEOPLE. But then, the inability to differentiate priorities is also an indicator of immaturity.

Well said OssanAmerica. One of Abe’s websites became inaccessible early Thursday and people act like something significant happened.

I'm sure Abe had personally spent days creating that website (insert rolleyes smiley here) and never knew it was down until after it was back up. The whole thing seems like a great big Yawn.

I love japan but more effort needs to be done, its one of the most if not the most technological advanced nation on earth, but when it comes to cyber security its vulnerable to simple SQL attacks....and other forms which most modern security experts are already ahead of it other nations.