Tokyo, Nov. 6 (Jiji Press)–Japan’s National Police Agency said Friday that it has set up a joint investigation headquarters led by its special cyber investigation unit and comprising prefectural police departments, in response to a string of cyberattacks resulting in data breaches across the country. The agency launched a separate investigation headquarters with the cybercrime division of Tokyo’s Metropolitan Police Department for a high-profile unauthorized access case that hit GMO Internet Group Inc. The NPA special unit is expected to assist in the investigation by drawing on its advanced technical expertise and experience working with foreign authorities. “We will seek to uncover the full scope of the (series of) incidents through a nationwide investigative effort,” an NPA official said. Of cyberattack cases that hit companies and other organizations, the nationwide investigation headquarters will handle unauthorized access incidents that resulted in large-scale personal information breaches confirmed in January this year and later. While the NPA has not disclosed the names of companies affected by the cyberattacks subject to the headquarters’ investigation, the number of firms is believed to exceed 100. They apparently include the operator of the Times Car vehicle-sharing service, whose customers’ driver’s license information was compromised. The NPA’s special cyber investigation unit will lead the probes. Prefectural police departments will interview affected companies within their respective prefectures and request them to submit communications records, among other steps. To identify suspects, the information will be consolidated to the NPA special unit, and records and methods used in cyberattacks will be analyzed. The joint investigations are being conducted under a police law provision that allows the NPA commissioner-general to order the creation of necessary investigative frameworks across prefectural boundaries for serious organized crimes spanning wide areas. The provision primarily applies to cybercrime and terrorism cases. It was also applied for joint investigations into a series of incidents committed by “tokuryu” loosely organized anonymous criminal groups, including a robbery-murder in May that killed a 69-year-old woman and seriously injured her two sons in the town of Kaminokawa, Tochigi Prefecture, eastern Japan. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]
