Japan Airlines weathers cyberattack
TOKYO -- Japan Airlines said it was hit by a cyberattack Thursday, causing delays to more than 20 domestic flights but the carrier said it was able to stop the onslaught and restore its systems hours later. There was no impact on flight safety, it said.
JAL said the problem started early Thursday when the company's network connecting internal and external systems began malfunctioning.
The airline said it was able to identify the cause as an attack intended to overwhelm the network system with massive transmissions of data. Such attacks flood a system or network with traffic until the target cannot respond or crashes.
The attack did not involve a virus or cause any customer data leaks, JAL said. It said that as of late morning, the cyberattack had delayed 24 domestic flights for more than 30 minutes.
Experts have repeatedly raised concerns about the vulnerability of Japan's cybersecurity, especially as the country steps up its defense capabilities and works more closely with the United States and other partners with much tighter cyber defenses.
JAL's ticket sales for both domestic and international fights scheduled for departure on Thursday were suspended temporarily but resumed several hours later.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi told a regular news conference Thursday that the transport ministry told JAL to hasten efforts to restore the system and to accommodate affected passengers.
Assassination plot foiled, Russia says
MOSCOW -- Russia's top security agency said Thursday that it has arrested several suspects accused of involvement in a supposed Ukrainian plot to assassinate senior military officers, an announcement that follows the killing of a top Russian general last week.
The Federal Security Service, a top KGB successor known under its Russian acronym FSB, said in a statement carried by Russian news agencies that it had arrested four Russians accused of making preparations to kill senior Defense Ministry officials.
The FSB said that the suspected organizers of the attacks were planning to kill one of the senior officers using a remotely controlled car bomb. It added that another top military official was to be assassinated by an explosive device hidden in an envelope. The agency didn't name the military officers who were targeted in the purported plot.
The FSB released a video showing the arrest and interrogation of the suspects, who weren't named.
Haiti removes health chief after attack
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti -- Haiti's health minister has been removed from his post after a deadly gang attack on the largest public hospital in the capital, Port-au-Prince.
In a statement published on Thursday afternoon, Haiti's transitional council named Justice Minister Patrick Pelissier as interim Health Minister until a replacement is found for the outgoing minister, Duckenson Lorthe.
Two journalists and a police officer were killed Tuesday as gang members burst into the General Hospital and fired indiscriminately at reporters who were there to cover the facility's reopening. Seven other journalists were wounded.
Jean Feguens Regala, a photographer who survived the attack, said journalists had been invited to the hospital by the health ministry but there was little security at the site.
"The fact that the minister of health invited us, you feel that preparations have been made already," Regala told The Associated Press. "When we made contact with a police unit, the police told us they were not aware of the event."
The health minister did not show up at the event, for reasons that have not been explained.
Shortly after the attack, Johnson "Izo" André -- considered Haiti's most powerful gang leader -- posted a video on social media claiming responsibility for the attack.
The video said the gang coalition had not authorized the hospital's reopening.
13 rebels die in shootouts, Pakistan says
PESHAWAR, Pakistan -- Pakistani security forces faced off with insurgents in three separate shootouts in the restive northwest bordering Afghanistan on Thursday, killing 13 militants, the military said.
Troops killed 11 insurgents in two separate raids in the North and South Waziristan districts in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. Another two insurgents were killed in the third security raid in Bannu, also a district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the military said.
It said an army major, Mohammad Awais, was killed during the shootout with militants in North Waziristan, a former stronghold of the Pakistani Taliban who have stepped up attacks on security forces in recent months.
The Pakistani Taliban, known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, are a separate group but allies of the Afghan Taliban who seized power in Afghanistan in 2021 as the United States and NATO troops were in the final stages of their pullout.
--COMPILED BY DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE STAFF FROM WIRE REPORTS
A staff member of Japan Airlines helps customers at the Haneda airport in Tokyo, Thursday, Dec. 26, 2024, after the airlines said it was hit by a cyberattack. (Shingo Fukuma/Kyodo News via AP)
Japan Airlines aircraft are seen at Tokyo's Haneda airport Thursday, Dec. 26, 2024, after the airlines said it was hit by a cyberattack. (Kyodo News via AP)