Hacks put Japanese government on alert

The Japanese government has called an emergency meeting to discuss potential methods to increase its computer security following a series of hacks into government Web sites.

The government site for its Science and Technology Agency has been hacked twice in the past two days. The attacks resulted in the deletion of important data, including the results of a recent census.

The second attack on the agency saw hackers leave anti-Japanese messages written in Chinese.

The emergency meeting comes just days after officials agreed to draw up a plan to fight cyber-terrorism and bring Japan's computer security up to US standards.