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Two men arrested for posting mass murder threats on government websites have been released from custody after it came to light that their computers were infected with a virus that allowed the machines to be controlled remotely.
Anime director Masaki Kitamura, 42, who worked as assistant director of the popular anime TV series "Mobile Suit Gundam 00," was arrested in August for posting a threatening message via the municipal government's website inquiry page at around 9:45 a.m. July 29. In the message, the writer threatened to indiscriminately murder passers-by in a shopping district of central Osaka on Aug 5, Fuji TV reported.
Kitamura was charged with obstructing the work of municipal employees and police after around 90 officers were put on alert. But he denied the charges.
A similar incident occurred in Mie Prefecture when a 28-year-old man was arrested Sept 14 on suspicion of posting a message on an online forum website threatening to destroy the Ise Grand Shrine.
Police investigations revealed that in both cases, the suspects had downloaded a free photograph editing application that had installed software on their computers which allowed them to be controlled remotely. Both men were released by police on Sept 21.
The National Police Agency has instructed prefectural police forces nationwide to consider the possibility that third parties may have hijacked personal computers and user accounts through such software when investigating cyber-crimes.
© Japan Today
14 Comments
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morrison_rm
Those wouldn't happen to be Windows OS computers?
Lunchbox
So they were kept in custody for over a month on no evidence? Deplorable human rights.
BertieWooster
Lunchbox-san,
Japan copies just about everything America does.
(Guantanamo - shh!)
gaijinfo
So is this guy going to get his job back, or is his life pretty much ruined?
JeffLee
Those wouldn't happen to be Windows OS computers
It doesn't matter. Macs are no better at fighting viruses than Windows PCs. What matters is the OS that the hackers decide to target. In one incident alone this spring, 650,000 Macs were infected with a Trojan called Flashback.
wackness
Prediction for next week's news story: JAPAN BANS INTERNET!
bookowls
@Jefflee - 650,000 Mac users should have known better than to download an update for Flash, given that Macs don't use it! And Macs are a lot better at fending off viruses than any Windows machine. I use both - funny how only my Windows machine has problems from time to time - never had a single problem with any of my Macs!
Frungy
Wrong. Macs are just less popular, so hackers don't write viruses for them since there's a lower return on time invested. As Macs become more popular, so more viruses will be written for them. Since Mac users have this idiotic idea that Macs are immune to viruses they'll be taken to the cleaners.
The moral of this story? Install at least two firewalls, and have independent anti-virus software. Thus endeth the lesson.
basroil
bookowlsOct. 08, 2012 - 10:17PM JST
Apparently you aren't well versed on computer operating systems then. OSX 10.5 had more critical (if unpatched machine can be remotely controlled) vulnerabilities in the first six months than Windows Vista and Windows 7 COMBINED. Any computer can be taken over, especially by trojan programs like is discussed in this article. I have seen it before, and because users think they are immune to viruses they tend to be carriers or have actual infections.
And actually, OSX does use flash, it's even built into the core like PDF reader because of Safari (and PDF reader was so poorly made that Apple had to rebuild it not long ago under the pretense of "upgrades"), so it is quite vulnerable compared to other systems.
Jerome_from_Utah
@wackness: So, if Japan bans the Internet; who will tell us? Or, do we just get a "failed to connect" message on the screen? They would have to shut down all the cell phone towers to make it effective.
darknuts
This is scary. I'm glad I use Linux.
Kabukilover
Just the NHK report. One man claims he was physically and psychologically abused by police, who insisted he was guilty. This should be of primary concern to all of us, no matter what kind of operating systems we use.