Japan cancels hacking contest

[InfoSec News <isn () c4i org>]

Forwarded from: William Knowles <wk () c4i org>

http://www.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,6823764%255E15318,00.html

Correspondents in Tokyo
July 28, 2003

JAPAN canceled a national computer-hacking contest scheduled for next 
month after the government came under fire as encouraging cybercrime, 
a government official said.

The Economy, Trade and Industry Ministry had planned the August 11-12 
contest as a way of fostering computer expertise among high school and 
vocational college students. Teams of up to three students would have 
tried to hack into opponents' computer systems, while protecting their 
own. 

But after receiving a flood of angry phone calls and mail, the 
ministry decided to scrap the "Security Koshien" - a reference to the 
stadium where national high school baseball tournaments are held - 
ministry spokesman Takashi Kume said. 

The ministry had said the contest was devised in response to growing 
concerns over computer security. Although the computers would have 
used Windows 2000 software, competitors could have drawn on other 
operating systems, such as Linux. 

Under Japanese law, computer users convicted of hacking into computer 
systems or downloading files without authorisation face up to one year 
in prison or a fine of 500,000 yen ($US4200). 



*==============================================================*
"Communications without intelligence is noise;  Intelligence
without communications is irrelevant." Gen Alfred. M. Gray, USMC
----------------------------------------------------------------
C4I.org - Computer Security, & Intelligence - http://www.c4i.org
================================================================
Help C4I.org with a donation: http://www.c4i.org/contribute.html
*==============================================================*



-
ISN is currently hosted by Attrition.org

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