Japan authorises government hacking survey of Internet of Things

As part of its planning for the 2020 Olympic Games, due to be held in Tokyo, Japan approved a law that would allow the government to conduct a survey to identify vulnerable Internet of Things devices. The National Institute of Information and Communications Technology staff who carry out the survey, who will be supervised by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, are required to follow strict rules in attempting to hack into these devices: they are only allowed to use default credentials and password dictionaries. Because a Shodan search finds only about 1,000 devices in Japan with easily guessed passwords, security professionals suggest that the survey will be more PR than actual security enhancement. NICT plans to start with routers and networked cameras. The details of insecure devices will be passed to ISPs and local authorities so they can alert consumers.

https://thenextweb.com/security/2019/01/28/japanese-officials-will-target-millions-of-iot-devices-to-help-secure-the-olympics/
Writer: Matthew Hughes
Publication: The Next Web