Police draw more cyber attacks

[InfoSec News <isn () c4i org>]

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?nn20030207a4.htm

[Just think, we've saved you over $80.00 from what mi2g would sell you 
this same report for...  :) - WK]


The Japan Times
Feb. 7, 2003

Hackers made some 58,000 attempts to break into police computer
systems from October to December, up 7,000 from the previous
three-month period, the National Police Agency said Thursday.

By country, hacking attempts from Israel accounted for 40.4 percent of
the total, followed by the United States at 20.8 percent, according to
the NPA's Cyber Force unit, which was set up to monitor and combat
"Net-based terrorism."

Hacking from within Japan made up 9 percent of the total, and South
Korea 7.2 percent. Italy, which topped the list at 20.6 percent in the
previous period, fell to sixth place at 3.8 percent.

"We do not clearly know what brought about the ranking change but
suspect that attackers may have transferred their bases to Israel from
Italy," officials of the unit said.

The NPA said nearly 90 percent of the incidents consisted of attempts
to learn what kinds of programs are being used on police computers.

These attempts are regarded as "preparatory activities" for more
serious assaults, the Cyber Force unit said.

Some 10 percent of the October-December hacking incidents were
attempts to shut down or take control of the systems, the agency said.

Most attacks via Israel were of the "preparatory" variety, whereas
four-fifths that arrived via South Korea were aimed at controlling the
systems, the unit said.

Net dating crackdown

The National Police Agency unveiled a final report Thursday that calls
for regulating online dating services accessible via mobile phones and
personal computers to curb abuses, including child prostitution. The
report, which incorporates public opinion and is a followup to an NPA
interim review made public in December, was submitted to the National
Public Safety Commission.

According to the final report, 80.2 percent of the 106 respondents
approved the government plan to regulate such dating sites.

The NPA said 90 percent of the respondents approved a proposal to ban
minors from taking part in services offered by the dating sites, and
75.1 percent approved a call to fine minors who do so. Under the Child
Welfare Law, minors are defined as those under 18 years of age.

The agency said it plans to draft a bill incorporating the report's
recommendations to regulate these dating services and submit it to the
Diet later this month.

The report underlines the obligation of parents, guardians, schools,
mobile phone companies and other authorities to supervise minors and
prevent them from using such sites.

As for the site operators, the report urges that they be obliged to
display on-screen warnings that minors are not allowed access, and to
confirm the age of clients.

There will be no regulation of other Internet or mobile phone services
that cater to people searching for friends with common hobby
interests, among other things, the NPA said.

The NPA said the same day there were 1,731 criminal cases in 2002
related to online dating sites, nearly twice as many as the previous
year, and 813 of them involved child prostitution.



-
ISN is currently hosted by Attrition.org

To unsubscribe email majordomo () attrition org with 'unsubscribe isn'
in the BODY of the mail.