Japan to survey 200 mil gadgets for cyber security

i thought nippon was supposed to be at the forefront of technology; what's this talk about faxes?

watch out for the inevitable phishing scams

Typical retroactive idea, the ball game is beyond the Japanese government they are still in the sand pit struggling to grasp fax use, I'm guessing the minister for cyber security doesn't use a computer as he might catch a virus. Thus the immediate use of a paper masks when near a computer. The programs they are going to use are undoubtedly already compromised and their best idea is to hack all users to search for what they themselves are spreading. It's modern Japan politics at its finest. Absolutely no idea apart from a condescending note from beauracracts.

...Oh, forgot to ask,

Does anyone know when this raid...erm, 'survey' will start?

Or is the announcement just a courtesy for something already underway??

So while Japan's "CyberSecurity" watchdog is surveying us.... who thinks they might pass on some virus' themselves. Perfect opportunity for real hackers to piggyback on this survey.

I don't think this will end well.

2020 Japan Big Brother Olympic Games. Please submit all your your private files, data, photos, passwords and emails. OH DEAR, cancel that. the govt will just take all anyway. you are instructed to stay home in your kotatsu and watch the sumo on tv.

By broadcasting these measures they are merely assurring hacks will occur off entire neighborhoods and companies!! Just getting local government off windows xp alone will be highly problematic. The irony is that the Japanese language itself is the security feature of these networks, the rest not so much

Will the conduct this survey by fax?

You must also keep in mind the background: that Yoshitaka Sakurada, the deputy chief of the government’s cybersecurity strategy office and also the minister in charge of the Olympic and Paralympic Games that Tokyo will host in 2020, doesn't use a computer.

Start with the 100 million fax machines in the country.

Good luck!

so the moral of the story is, skip those home connected devices and just open your doors, turn on your air conditioner etc manually, vacuum your house yourself. stop being a lazy bum.

The researchers will survey gadgets with the consent of internet service providers

How about the actual owners of that gadget? They just skip that?

Oh man, this looks like an effort with good intentions that could actually cause the very problem it is intended to prevent!!!

As others have pointed out....

The researchers will survey gadgets with the consent of internet service providers and will mostly examine products that use physical cables to access the internet, he said.

But they don't have permission from the gadget owners! This is typical Japanese beaureaucracy and government working against the plebs of the nation!

Exactly... the ore ore boys are already updating their scripts...

Great post jpn_guy.

Password scams are exactly what will happen.

The survey may examine routers at cafes, for example, that provide free connectivity for mobile users, Yoshida said.

This actually sounds logical and good that they are at least checking the wifi spots because it almost seemed like they wanted to check every home owner and their router which felt like invasion of privacy.

So if I get caught hacking, I should just say that I was scanning to help improve security?

And what do they plan to do? Force people to change their passwords? Money would have been better spent with awareness rather than scanning.

Unplug your wired PC's at home when the survey runs.

'The survey....without breaking into individual gadgets to view data stored inside, he added.'

Yeah, right. Just sayin'.

Geez, at least one thing good to come from the Olympics, MAYBE!