Japanese Government Will Hack 200 Million IoT Devices For Valuable Reasons
In the mid-February, the Japanese government is planning to start open hacking of more than pre-installed 200 million IoT devices at home, offices and everywhere in Japan.
The government announced this plan in January 2019 which is likely an uncomfortable truth known to many consumers and security experts.
Insecurity in IoT devices due to privacy breaches, data-device encryption, weak web interface, etc. triggered the hackers and cyber attackers to make IoT a soft target of their malicious deeds.
Consumers of IoT devices, AI, cybersecurity, etc. don’t bother a lot to change the initial settings after purchase and installation. Furthermore, most of the times P2P communication among IoT devices remains unchecked.
By far it has been noticed that service providers don’t automatically update devices frequently enough. Many IoT devices in the world are vulnerable to cyber attacks and need strong security backing.
At such crucial times where cybersecurity should get first priority among governments, the plan from the Japanese government might prove to be a valuable step.
Critics call this plan a violation of citizens’ privacy and Japanese media reports haven’t accepted the idea and is criticizing the government.
Is Japan becoming China?
According to media reports, Japan is also becoming a surveillance nation like China in the name of public safety. Most people aren’t trusting the government that they would keep the collected data safe.
In a public announcement, the NICT said, “It will use various password generators and different tactics to attempt hacks of IoT devices, seeking to compile a list of vulnerable devices.
NICT will share the obtained information with Internet service providers, who then will alert consumers as a part of security management.
Though the government hasn’t specified the targeted IoT devices, the surveillance will most likely start with the routers and webcams. The whole plan will last for up to five years.

Tokyo Olympics in 2020 is a perfect cover for Japan’s government to check cybersecurity as a part of Olympics security program.
Also, the Mirai malware attack is still fresh in the national memory. If such a malware again controls bots and networked devices, then there are chances that a large-scale network attack could yet happen in Japan.
A cybersecurity analyst, Tanner Johnson described the Japanese government’s hacking mainly focused on IoT and transformative technologies as a simple proactive precaution.
The Olympics event is guaranteed hacking site for cyber attackers because of the presence of millions of data. Therefore, if a country is raising some security concerns and is crafting a way out of it, then it is for an excellent valuable reason.
But Why Five Year?
Hackers never go against a robust security system, but always target weak systems such that infiltration is possible within computer and IoT devices in a short period of time.
If this hack plan is to tighten the security in the Tokyo Olympics, then wonder why the government wants to run this hack program for five years from 2019.
The answer is simple; Japan wants to design a secure platform so that all major-minor devices can be included and connected via the internet with strong cipher encryption.
Others suspect that the government is trying to find out what’s going on with the Huawei technologies. There can be countless reasons for such tests to conduct, but it will certainly help the government in collecting data to gain an in-depth analysis of the behavior of IoT devices.
Safety and security concerns are critical in today’s world for the global safety of data. Trillium Secure Inc. is going to put the efforts and investment for the Japanese government to make security systems prepared for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
Is Japan The First Nation?
It is a debatable topic if Japan is the first nation among all other on the globe to initiate a broad, random government hack on IoT devices. However, Japan isn’t the first nation to do so and dozens of countries have already conducted similar tests.
In preparation for this planned hacking, the Japanese government has already changed the law ensuring that the NCIT’s survey is not illegal.
But will this survey prove to be effective? We think if this test is conducted correctly, then notifying individuals about security measures is easy. An experiment with greater potential could be useful in reducing the number of vulnerable IoT devices in the region.
The government’s announcement of its planned hack of IoT device is also a good reminder that many citizens everywhere in the nation are becoming more conscious about IoT devices.

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