In ‘high tech’ Japan, dated versions of Internet Explorer could be hacker playground

Anonymous hacker via Wikimedia Commons.

For all of its headline-grabbing technological advances – and a pop culture obsession with giant robots – Japan can be downright low tech. Faxing hand-written timesheets and expense reports remains common practice, from neighborhood small businesses all the way up to the very consumer electronics corporations that design our cutting-edge gadgets.

As of yesterday, Microsoft has ended support for older versions of Internet Explorer. Machines running affected iterations – anything prior to Internet Explorer 11 and Microsoft’s latest Edge browser – are at an increased risk of security breach. That should be a major cause of concern across Japan, where just under a quarter of work-related PCs are running dangerously dated software.

According to The Japan Times, 80 percent of businesses and government offices use Internet Explorer as their primary browser. Of those, an estimated 30 percent have out-of-date versions installed.

Japanese schools and government offices are especially known to use decade-old computers and software – when they’re used at all – and PC illiteracy among young people is shockingly on the rise.

Old software is a hacker’s playground, and Japan has been an increasingly common target for their exploits. The national pension service was rocked by a relatively simple email-based attack last summer, exposing the personal details of more than 1.25 million people. Such targeted email attacks increased from less than 500 known cases in 2013 to more than 1,700 in 2014 – a likely sign that other forms of hacking are also on the rise.

Just today, Nissan’s website was reportedly taken down by the hacktivist group Anonymous as a protest of Japan’s continued whaling efforts – despite the fact that Nissan has nothing to do with whaling.

Sony Pictures was famously hacked in November 2014, though it was barely reported on in the Japanese media (and may not have had anything to do with dated software). Despite being one of Japan’s most iconic brands, the company considered it more of an “American problem,” due to the film division being based in California. Perhaps if it had been more widely discussed in the domestic market, companies and public offices running at-risk software would feel a heightened sense of urgency to upgrade.

Until then, it’s open season for hackers.

Source: The Japan Times