NPA reports hackers attacking its computers

[InfoSec News <isn () c4i org>]

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

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?nn20021108a3.htm

The Japan Times
November 8, 2002  

The National Police Agency said Thursday there were about 51,000
attempts by hackers to break into police computer systems throughout
the country during the three-month period from July to September.

But agency officials said the attempts were not all necessarily
directed at police, and that some of the hackers may have accessed the
computers unknowingly because the agency does not disclose that police
are in charge of the systems in question.

The NPA's Cyber Force unit began monitoring hacking attempts in April
using a network linking 57 computer systems at regional police bureaus
and prefectural police departments.

The unit, which combats Net-based terrorism in the form of computer
hacking, said that on average each system was the recipient of 10
hacking attempts a day over the three-month period.

"(These figures show that) you need to discard the notion that
individually owned computers are secure and need to strengthen
measures to counter hacking," an NPA official said.

Italy was the most frequently used base for launching cyber attacks
against the police computer systems, representing 20.6 percent of all
attempts.

It was followed by the United States at 18.8 percent, Japan at 18.2
percent, China at 7.2 percent, South Korea at 5.9 percent and Israel
at 4.9 percent.

Officials said, however, that these figures did not necessarily point
to the actual country where the attack originated, as they only
indicate the last point before reaching Japan.

The Cyber Force data also show that nearly 90 percent of the hacking
activities detected amounted to attempts to learn what kinds of
programs were being used by the targeted computers.

This is seen as a preparatory activity for full-fledged hacking. About
10 percent represented attacks meant to shut down or take control of
the systems, such as by repeatedly trying to overload a system by
flooding it with hits, or by sending data that would damage the
computers.

The NPA intends to monitor these activities regularly and provide its
results to firms involved in telecommunications, electric power and
transportation.

The agency will also launch a Web site on cyber security in March to
try to inform the public on ways to guard against hacking, NPA
officials said.


 
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