Japanese Cyber crime Posing Challenge to the West

According to the figures released by National Police Agency (NPA), cyber crime in Japan increased at an annual YOY growth of 15.5% during 2008. Finjan, an online security company, says that the statistics do not reflect any improvement in e-crime in western countries.

Yuval Ben- Itzhak, CTO of Finjan, states that anecdotal evidence indicates that the level of cyber crime scaled up in West during 2008. Moreover, we expect that the number of malware based infections, internet scams and hack will rise in 2009 with deepening current economic recession, as reported by ComputerWeekly on February 27, 2009.

Further, Ben-Itzhak claims that hackers are targeting famous sites to circulate malware. He also adds that Japlog.jp Website, ranked 382 worldwide and 41 in Japan by Alexa (California-based Web Information Company) was excessively targeted by hackers. Moreover, by using ActiveX code along with obfuscation technique, hackers succeeded in attacking users with malware visiting the site.

Moreover, as Japlog.jp is already attacked, Livedoor.jp, another popular website, ranked 70 worldwide and sixth in Japan by Alexa,- was also hacked by cyber crooks.

Ben-Itzhak adds that their Malicious Code Research Centre team had detected the attacks. While the methodology employed to attack Japlog.jp website is famous among the hackers, it cannot be ignored that the two famous websites were attacked in very short time period, as reported by TechWhack on February 27, 2009.

He also says that it was difficult to extrapolate Japanese figures as there is no western similar collection of cyber crime details. He also claims that since Japanese usually have a greater extent of personal morality, the rise in cyber crime indicates danger for the West.

In the meantime, the Japanese cyber crime report also discloses that the incidents of inauthentic access to data and threats increased 20% and 90% to 1,740 and 112 respectively. Further, those of libel and fraud slid 23% and 0.3% to 61 and 1,508 respectively.

Security experts advise that the site owners and users should be extra vigilant to safeguard themselves, their staff, customers' lists and financial details from cyber criminals.

Related article: Japanese Text Editor Reports Flaw

» SPAMfighter News - 3/6/2009