Cyber-attacks in Japan over dolphin hunts

The Asahi Shimbum, one of Japan’s leading newspapers, reports that a large number of Japanese websites have come under attack over the country’s continued support for the annual dolphin drive hunts in Taiji.

So far nearly 40 websites have suffered from DDoS (distributed denial of service) attacks, in which the websites are bombarded with numerous data requests, resulting in them either slowing down or going offline completely while genuine visitors are unable to reach them.

Members of the Anonymous network of hackers have claimed responsibility. It is not the first time such attacks have occured, with a Japanese government website for the prefecture when Taiji is located previously being targeted in 2014.